A Dialogue Between a Father and His Son

A man came home from work—late, tired and irritated, to find his 4-year old son waiting for him at the door:

Son: “Dad, may I ask you a question?”

Dad: “Yes, sure, what’s it?”

Son: “Daddy, how much do you make an hour?”

Dad: “That’s none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?” the man said angrily.

SON: “I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?”

DAD: “If you must know, I make $20 an hour.”

“Oh!” the little boy sighed, with his head down. Looking up, he said, “Daddy, may I please borrow $10?”

The Dad was furious, “If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed; think, why you’re so selfish; I work hard everyday for such this childish behavior.”

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.

The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy’s questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?

After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think: May be there was something he really needed to buy with that $10 and he really didn’t ask for money very often.

The man went to the door of the little boy’s room and opened the door:

“Are you sleeping, son?” He asked.

“No Daddy, I’m awake” replied the boy.

“I’ave been thinking, may be I was too hard on you earlier” said the man.

“It’s been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you; here’s the 10$, you asked for.”

The little boy sat on his bed straight up, smiling; “Oh! Thank you daddy!” he yelled.

Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills.

The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again.

The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his dad.

“Why do you want more money when you already have some?” the father grumbled.

“Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do,” the little boy replied.

“Daddy, I have $20 now; Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow; I would like to have dinner with you.”

Share this story with someone you like….but even better, share $20 worth of time with someone you love.

It’s just a short reminder to all of you working so hard for one side of the life, ignoring the other side.

We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts.

We die tomorrow; the company, we work for, will replace us in a matter of days. But the family and friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. Think it, we pour ourselves more into work than to our family. An unwise investment indeed!

Israr Hasan

ihasanfaq@yahoo.com