I friend of mine shared this on Facebook. I’m sharing it here on my blog because I believe that it’s a good reminder to all parents to pay attention to our kids, especially when they want to talk to us.

I want to to be a TV…

A Primary School teacher asked her pupils to write an essay on “A wish you want from God?” At the end of the day, the teacher collected all the essays given by her pupils. She took them to her house, sat down and started marking while watching the TV.

Whilst marking the essays, she sees a strange essay written by one of her pupils. That essay made her very emotional. Her husband came and sat beside her and saw her crying. The husband asked her, “What happened?” “What’s making you cry?”

She answered “Read this. It is one of my pupil’s essay.”

Oh God, make me a Television. I want to live like the TV in my house. In my house, the TV is very valuable. All of my family members sit around it. They are very interested in it. When the TV is talking, my parents listen to it very happily.

They don’t shout at the TV. They don’t quarrel with the TV. They don’t slap the TV. So I want to become a TV.

The TV is the center of attraction in my house. I want to receive the same special care that the TV receives from my parents. Even when it is not working, the TV has a lot of value.

When my dad and mom come home, they immediately sit in front of the TV, switch it on and spend hours watching it. The TV is stealing the time of my dad and my mom. If I become a TV, then they will spend their time with me.

While watching the TV, my parents laugh a lot and they smile many times. But I want my parents to laugh and smile with me also. So please God make me a TV.

And last but not the least, if I become a TV, surely I can make my parents happy and entertain them.

Lord, I won’t ask you for anything more. I just want to live like a TV. Please turn me into a TV.

The husband completed reading the essay. He said “My God, poor kid. He feels lonely. He did not receive enough love and care from his parents. His parents are horrible.”

The eyes of the primary School teacher filled with tears. She looked at her husband and said, “Our son wrote this essay.”

Maybe instead of a TV, it can be the laptop, cell phone, Facebook, work or anything that steals your time from being truly present to your children. May our children never desire to be Whatsapp, phones, gadgets, Facebook, Twitter or a TV to get love and affection from us.

According to a survey sponsored by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that helps parents, educators and children negotiate media and technology, it is found that parents of tweens and teens spend more than nine hours a day on average on screens. More than 80% of that time was for pleasure, not work, with parents watching television, playing video games, social networking, browsing websites, or doing other things on a computer, smartphone or tablet.

One of the things I share with parents in my workshops is to pay attention to their children. In our ever-connected world, it’s so easy to be distracted. There are a million things that compete for our attention. If we are not vigilant and if we are not intentional in spending quality time with our children, a day will pass and we could easily lose track of time and not spend time really connecting not just with our children but also with the other important people in our lives.

Simple things and basic etiquette like looking at the person in the eye when someone is talking to you or you are talking to someone are forgotten these days. There are families who even use phones and gadgets or watch TV during mealtimes and thus fail to connect with each other during these times.

It’s not wrong to use these things once in a while. But, to help prevent this tragedy from happening in your family, I highly recommend that you make time to connect with your children when you get home, during mealtimes and before bed at night. Make them part of your daily routine. By doing this, you show your children by your actions that they are important to you and that spending time with them makes you happy.

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