Please Hug Me

One night at home - just as about you are trying to round up those work files you brought home and getting ready to work at your bedroom desk, then just suddenly a little voice called you and say "please hug me…"  What did you do? Did you even give thought just for a second? Were these words "Me ginagawa ako anak" (I'm doing something, my child) your only response?

These are the words that keep reminding me and my wife that these are precious times for us and our children. These are the times that hold even more precious to our child's mind. Times that can not and will not replace those toys and the presents we give. Nor the baon (milk money) that fill their pockets

I have forgotten how it feels for me to say "please hug me" to my father (because he was always busy at work and really never there to simply tuck me in.) But I can tell you this, I know how a father feels when he is loved by his kids. And so we make every effort not to ignore our kids' asking. For us, it may be a moment just in passing but the rewards are still everlasting. It is this little moment that strengthens the bond that we have with our kids. To show our kids that they are loved. That our kids are secured by our embrace. That in the darkness of night, everything will be alright. All it takes is 15 minutes.

Besides, give it a few more years, and we might not hear our children (at their teens) utter those words again. So I say, drop those pen and paper, set the laptop in virus-scan mode and give your kid and yourself that 15 minutes that will last you a lifetime.