It's All About Attention

There’s this little girl in school who’s so ecstatic every time she sees me. I’ll call her Sarah. Since last Wednesday, the start of the School’s Foundation celebration, she’d really flash a big smile, tug, hug, and ask me anything. Last Friday, I saw her participating in the ground demonstration and she was dancing along with her classmates. She was just a foot away from where I stand so I was teasing her to show the usual smile she’s been giving me so that her parents could get good photos of her. What I got from her was a timid glance and her head bowing down hastily.

Right after Sarah’s performance, she came to me and I started kidding her again but she didn’t say anything and started to jiggle her legs. She whispered to me that her parents weren’t there and nobody came to watch her. She said her parents have been separated since she was a baby. Her mother is now in Japan while her father is in Davao, with a new family. She is under the care of her maternal grandparents who didn’t see her perform either.

Sarah was with me for more than 2 hours while waiting for her grandma to pick her up. And it was there that I learned Sarah wasn’t doing well academically. Most of her grades were failing . She said her grandma was too old to help her. So I told her to see me every lunch or before she goes home to breeze through her notes, at least.

I’ve seen many of Sarah’s kind (some kids are tricky though and good in faking emotions so good discernment is a must)- neglected because both parents are compelled to work away from them or have to mind their own separate lives. 9-yr old Sarah and the other kids without a choice go to school as an obligatory function and maybe, exercise their right to be educated (or pretend to be). While their parents try as much to fulfill the obligation to send them to school- they missed the whole point of parenting in their absence and worst, if both are out of reach. By meeting the financial needs, all other equally important rights of the child are compromised. It's nobody's fault alright. But don't you think that there should be a policy where all absentee parents acquire at least PCs or mobile phones for their children to feel them or merely narrow the gap of being away from home? The heck, just communicate.

Of course, there are other children from dysfunctional families who grew up well and better than the regular families we normally see but children are children and they need attention. Some kids are lucky to endure tough times at a very young age and some aren’t. Sarah is one who can hardly paddle the lessons of life with less attention and instructions from her family. There’s really no short cut in raising kids- a little assurance from grown ups would matter .