Many years ago,  a young girl came to see me. The moment she walked in, I could tell something was terribly wrong. Her face was crumpled with sadness; her eyes looked heavy, and there was a deep anguish in her expression that words could hardly explain.
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‎I gently asked her what was wrong.
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‎Suddenly, she broke down.
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‎She sobbed uncontrollably, as though she had been carrying a burden far too heavy for her young heart. I was worried, but I did not rush her. I sat there, allowing her to cry, allowing the tears to fall until she could gather herself enough to talk.
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‎After a while, I moved closer and gently asked her what had happened.
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‎Her answer startled me.
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‎She told me she wanted to run away from home.
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‎I was stunned. From what I knew, her parents provided everything she needed. She was not the child who went to bed hungry or lacked the basic necessities of life. By every material standard, she seemed to have what many children could only dream of.
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‎So, I struggled to understand what could possibly make a child want to run away from home where she lacked nothing?
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‎Then she spoke words that exposed a kind of poverty no amount of money could conceal:
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‎“My parents give me everything I want, but they are never there for me.”
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‎I sat with those words, and suddenly, the picture became painfully clear. This was a child who had things but was starving for parental attention ; a child surrounded by provision yet overwhelmed by loneliness; a child who had a home to return to but felt she had nowhere to turn.
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‎Let that sink in.
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‎ This young girl wanted to run away, not because the house lacked food, but because the people inside it were emotionally absent.
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‎What kind of parenting gives a child everything except the parents themselves?
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‎Let us stop pretending that paying school fees, buying  phones, providing food, and building houses automatically make someone a good parent.
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‎Some parents are busy working for their children but never make time to know them. They can tell you the school fees to the last kobo, but cannot tell you the last time their child sat before them and spoke freely about a personal struggle.
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‎They buy gifts to compensate for their absence, then wonder why the gifts cannot buy affection.
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‎They mistake silence for peace, obedience for emotional health, and material comfort for happiness.
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‎The most painful part? Some children stop asking for attention because they have been disappointed too many times.
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‎They stop talking. They stop sharing their fears. They stop expecting comfort. Eventually, they learn to suffer quietly in the very home where they should feel safest.
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‎And their parents call them independent and mature kids.
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‎No. Sometimes, what you celebrate and praise as independence or maturity is a child’s coping mechanism because she has realized that nobody is coming.
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‎Of course, parenting is a hard job. Very exhausting and challenging . Bills must be paid, and nobody can be available 24/7 . But there is a brutal difference between a parent who struggles to make time and one who has convinced themselves that money excuses emotional neglect.
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‎Your children did not ask to be born so they could spend their childhood competing with your job, your ambitions, and your indifference.
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‎You may provide the roof over their heads, but do they feel safe enough to bring you their tears?
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‎You may fill their rooms with expensive things, but have you made room for their feelings? Or you think, children don’t have feelings?
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‎ You may be physically present every day, yet emotionally, your children may be growing up as orphans.
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‎ That is the tragedy of being present but not present.
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‎ Parents, hear this: you can fulfil every financial obligation and still fail a child who desperately needs you.
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‎One day, the child you never had time to listen to may stop trying to reach you. Do not wait until they find comfort in strangers, hide their pain behind silence, or leave your home before you realise that something precious has been dying in it.
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‎ Check if your children are still there or if they have left home in their hearts.

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