$20 an Hour

One day, the father reached home from work and found his son still not asleep yet, when it's already 11pm. He asked, 'why aren't you asleep yet?' The son did not say anything, but just popped a question to his dad, 'Father, how much do you earn per hour?'

The father do the math mentally and answered his son, '$20 per hour'. Without hestitation, the son asked to borrow $10 from his father. The moment the question was asked, the father went fuming mad and scolded him, 'What time is it already and you still don't want to sleep, yet you still ask to borrow $10 from me?' He continued scolding and the son just kept quiet through and quietly went to bed thereafter.

Moments later, the father felt bad for being so harsh to his son. He visited his son at his bedroom and asked his son if he's asleep. The son answered, 'Hi Dad, i'm not asleep yet.' Seeing that, the father hands him $10 to his son and apologise for being harsh. Immediately, his son took a container from under the pillow and opened it up. Inside revealed tons of coin and immediately, the father scolds the son again. He scolded his son, 'You already have so much money, yet you still want to borrow money from me.'

Tearfully, the son puts the $10 note into the container and pass it to his dad. He said, "Dad, it's $20 inside this container. Can I have 1 hour of your time?'

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The above situation are so common in today's society. Fathers working hard outside, neglecting family time and life. Sometimes, parents work so hard to achieve the tangibles in life - cars, bigger house etc, all for the thought of comfort for the family, but in fact, deep inside the vulnerable and innocent heart of the children, I'm pretty sure it's the bonding time that they prefer to have.

For this, I tell myself, if I ever have my very own children next time, I'm going to be a good father, I want to be a good father that grows up with them.