Where the heart is

I re-posted an article that I wrote February of last year (from my Diary of a Call center mom) because I was reminded of it while watching the evening news. It seems that most of the news we get to watch these days is fraught with violence. Topics from children committing crimes or being used to commit crimes, the number of people committing suicide, erring families, child abuse, to battered women.. The list is endless and very disturbing that sometimes I'd rather not watch the news on the telly at all.

It's because of such news that I sometimes ask myself if my husband and I are bringing up our children the right way. Perhaps we should all take another look at our children as news such as these show that families all over the world are suffering from "internal bleeding." We should always ask ourselves the following questions: 

1) Are we showing them enough love?

2) Are we spending quality time with them? 

3) Are we listening closely to what they are saying or are tying to say? 

4) Are we spoiling them too much? 

5) Are we hurting them physically and emotionally? 

6) Do we respect their right to be heard?

7) Are we good role models that they can emulate?

8) Have we hugged them lately?

9) Are we comfortable in telling them the words "I love you"

10) Have we blamed them for our failures?

For now I have only 10 as these are the only ones I can think of at the moment. We should start healing our families by being there for them not only physically. Bear in mind that a dysfunctional child is the fruit of dysfunctional parents, who came from a dysfunctional family. (please excuse my redundancy) This is probably of no surprise because even the bible contains stories of  such brokenness. Remember Cain and Abel?, The Prodigal son? and, Joseph and his brothers to name a few? 

Are families around the world so severed?  We all know that being a parent is not easy but we took that responsibility in our hands, we claimed that responsibility as soon as we said "I do." Hence, we are expected to carry on with that promise. We build our family and bring our children up in the premise that they will be positive contributors to the world.

It is important to find that connection again and it's my belief that the world will be worry-free if only we re-learn to value our family. Afterall, home is where the heart is.