Leaky Faucets

Cub Scouts yesterday had an interesting moment. I am an assistant to the den leader, and each week I work with the Wolves (8 year olds). Our little Wolves are currently working on a conservation badge and yesterday I was telling them 3 stories from my life that related to conservation. Here was the first story:

When I was in 8th grade, in California, we had to do a project on conservation and then present our project in class. At the time California was in a serious drought and there were concerns about having enough water to irrigate the crops and orchards. A girl in my class had a leaky faucet at her house and her dad had been too busy to repair it. So, she pulled the stopper and then let the sink fill up with water so that her dad could see how much water was being wasted. He then fixed the faucet.

The boys were completely enthralled by my story (which seriously surprised me because it’s only mildly interesting) and I finished by telling them that there are probably lots of things that they notice around their houses that their parents may not notice.

What follows are their responses:

Boy 1: Yeah, my parents don’t notice anything. Like, my dad only notices football and my mom only notices cooking.

Boy 2: My parents are really busy and they always tell me, “Not right now.” But it’s okay because I have 4 brothers and so I’m not lonely.

Boy 3: My parents don’t notice me at all.

Me: (to the boy who feels unnoticed) Buddy, I know your parents love you a lot. (feeling heartbroken that this boy feels like no one notices him.)

Boy 1: There’s stuff you can do to get noticed, you know.

Then all the boys started talking about parents not noticing things.

The conversation only took a couple of minutes, but it’s been playing in my head for over a day now. Do my kids feel like I’m constantly telling them, not right now? Or do they feel like they are not noticeable or that I’m too busy with my daily tasks to really see and hear them?

I will say this, these 3 boys come from very good homes. The father of one boy is in the stake presidency, the father of the other boy is a counselor in our bishopric, and the father of the third boy was a counselor in the bishopric that just got released. All of these boys have mothers who stay at home.

It’s been a good reminder for me that I need to actively focus on my parental responsibilities and do the best that I can to pay attention to my kids.