Dear Distracted Parent,
I know you are busy. There are things you really do need to do. I’m busy too, so I get it.
I also know that that littler girl over there, the one crying? She’s too young to understand what it is you need to do. All she understands is that she needs you, and you’re not there. Physically maybe, but not mentally. You are there with your computer. Your work, your schoolwork. You are more “there” with the person you are texting on your phone than with that precious little girl of yours. You are with the hundreds of Facebook friends who just saw your updated status. The status you took time out of your very important task, to update. Rather than pick up your girl and hold her for those 5 minutes.
The little girl crying in the corner, or on the other side of the playground, or right at your feet, she needs you. Yes, what you are doing is urgent (hopefully that’s what it is), but the heart of your child is more important.
One day, that little girl who bothers you so much right now, when you are so busy, will not be crying at your feet. She won’t be a room away. And one day, she will return the favor, and be too busy for you.
She will be too busy to tell you how her day went. Who her friends are. Who her crush is. Where she is going. She will be too busy to be held when she gets a broken heart, when she fails a test, when she is just a hormonal emotional teenager who needs love.
You won’t be the person she runs to with joy, or sadness, for your arms are not open to her when she needs them the most
Right now, while she still needs you, and still needs to be held, please stop pushing her away. Stop telling her to leave you alone. Stop telling her “not right now”…because that is all she has with you, “right now”. That is when she needs you.
Show her that even though what you are doing is important, and does need to get done, she is even more important.
Show her that she is loved, and treasured.
Respectfully,
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