• The Runaways
    Awake!—1971 | March 22

    • In many cases involving runaways, it has been found that the parents took no time for their children in a personal way; they did not listen to the children’s problems. Has that been true in your home?

      Commenting on the matter of runaway children in Mexico, an assistant police chief observed: “Parents should watch and care for their children better, and they should not think that because they give them clothes, and food, and because they pay for their schooling they have fulfilled all their obligations.”

      It would be worth your while to examine as to whether you have been so occupied with business activities or other personal interests that you have given very little time in a personal way to your children. If you find this to be true, would it not be sensible to reduce the activities that have crowded your life? Would it not be better to spend more time in getting to know your children and in guiding and counseling them?

      Have you really been willing to listen to the problems of your children? Some parents try to avoid it, putting their children off by saying, “Some other time.” There is the case of a boy who wanted to have a talk with his father, but his father said, ‘I’ll talk with you after supper.’ After supper he postponed it to still another time, and so on. He did not actually want to listen to what was troubling his son. Did he, then, have reason to be surprised when his son ran away? Communicating with your children is essential.

      If you are a father, to communicate with your son you do not have to pretend you are equals. You are not. You are father and son, an unequal relationship. It is a relationship in which the son expects you to exercise authority. One youth said: “I have all the friends I need. I don’t want another friend; I want a father.”