My son Mike, woke up about 2am one night. At first he called out for his mum and then started crying. His mother went into the room where he sleeps with his younger sister to check on him. For about 5 minutes he was crying and would not let his mother touch him, so she called out to me to come over and I did.
As I came close to him and asked what the matter was, he continued crying. ‘Mike what is it? I asked,’ he made no comments and when I got into the bed to hold him he turned away in anger and just continued crying.
At this point his mother was upset with him as he was already becoming loud and in the process of waking his sister up. She said she would spank him, but I told her to be patient. She took him into the bathroom to see if he wanted to pee, still he just went on crying and stayed back in the bathroom. In despair his mother left him there and told me to take over as she had done all she could.
Then I held him by the hand and took him to another room, carried him up to sleep with me on the bed, but he got up annoyed and stood by the side of the bed crying and saying that he did us see us during the day.
It was then that it dawned on me what the matter was. Mike had complained some days before then that we were never around when it was their bedtime and that we left them alone at home with their nanny also saying that he wanted us around. When he said it at first, it broke my heart.
Well you see Mike is just 4 years plus and being a first child he saw us around a lot while growing up, but now he misses all the attention, love and security he felt when we were around. So this show of anger was just to let us know that he was unhappy. I held him close and told him not to get upset that Mummy and I will ensure that we got home early and then he stopped, climbed into the bed, held unto me tightly and slept quietly.
You see children are really sensitive and strongly attached to their parents as they grow up, especially toddlers. We as parents must ensure that at this stage of their growing years we spend quality time with them. This is the time when they ask a lot of questions and would require answers only from Mummy and Daddy their role models and they feel really secured only around their Parents.
They are very watchful, always listening to whatever the parents say, watching what they do, what they wear and how they do things. Whenever I am shaving they love to watch and ask questions.
Never allow caregivers to be the ones to answer their questions as the caregivers sometime are not educated enough or patient to give the right answers.
Remember that a child always looks up to its parents for guidance; as a matter of fact God planned it that way. No matter how tight your schedules are, your children are more important and valuable and you are the ones to shape them up and show them the way that they should go in life.
Whenever I meet a child who is not cultured right, I know who to blame, the parents of course.
Everything we do, say or become today was birthed in us as children. So please parents make out time to set them on the right path, after all these kids represent your future. Remember the word of God says ‘Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it’..... Ponder on this!
