I came home from work late, tired and irritated, 5 year old son was waiting for me at the door. As soon as I arrived he asked me: “Dad, may I ask you a question?”. “Yes sure, what is it?” I replied. “Dad, how much do you make an hour?” … “… that’s none of your business, why do you ask such a thing?”, I replied with little anger.
“I just want to know, please tell me, how much do you an hour?” the boy pleaded.
“If you must know then I will tell… I make $20 an hour”, I replied.
“Oh,” the little boy replied, with his head down.
After a moment, looking up, he said, “Dad, may I please borrow $10?”
I was furious and surprised.
“If the only reason you asked that is to borrow some money to buy a silly toys or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed, think about why you are being so selfish.” my anger increased.
… I work long hard hours everyday and don’t have time for this type of childish behaviour…
After my angry reply, The little boy quitly went to his room and shut the door…
I sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy’s question. How dare he ask such questions to get some money?
After about half an hour or so, I had calmed down, and started to think ‘He may have been really requiring that money, maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10 and he really didn’t ask for money very often.’
I thought of my son… he may be feeling hard with my anger and I went to the door of his room and opened the door.
“Are you asleep, Son?” I asked.
“No dad, I’m awake.” he replied.
“I’ve been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier. It’s been a long day and I took out my aggression on you.
Here’s the $10 you asked for.”, I said.
The little boy sat straight up, smiling. “Oh, thank you daddy!” he yelled.
Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up money.
Seeing that… he already had money, I started to get angry again.
He slowly counted out his money, then looked up at me.
“Why do you want more money if you already have some?” I grumbled.
“… because I didn’t have enough, but now I do.” boy replied.
“Daddy, I have $20 now, can I buy an hour of your time?” Please come home early tomorrow, Mom and I would like to have dinner with you.”
… hearing that reply I was totally speechless… I didn’t found anything to reply… I realized how important I am to my wife, my son… my sweet family…
It’s just a short reminder to all working so hard in life. We should not let time slip our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those who are close to our hearts.
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