Making up for lost times
“Sir, why are you here?” asked my son’s former classmate who saw me in school one day.
“I will buy books for Edgar,” was my reply and stood behind him on the line to the bookstore.
Lately, I’m becoming a familiar face in my children’s schools – enrolling them, paying their tuition fees, buying them uniforms and books. I’m finding myself doing errands for my kids. Things that they could have done, but I opted to do them myself.
Don’t I trust them with the finances? Of course, I do. I know my kids. They can be trusted with anything. It’s just that I wanted to do those things for them.
I missed a lot of my kids’ childhood because I was “too busy” at my work then. Now that I have a lot of time in my hand, I want to do anything that I can to show them that “hey! I’m still here! I’ll always be here for you.”
School plays, academic competitions, sport events, name it! I missed them all because I have to work.
Isn’t it ironic? We devote so much time in our work, because we want “to provide the best for our family.” We prioritize the company that we work for over our kids. The same company who is very much willing to drop us at a snap of a finger.
While them, our kids, are just there waiting for us to have even just a little of our time.
With my kids almost all grown up, there’ll be less of those activities that I missed and maybe not enough time to make up for the lost opportunities. That is why I’ll do everything I can for now to let them know that I am here for them… for anything.
