Have you ever done it? You are busy talking on the phone or cooking dinner, a child comes up to you, fravorite book in hand and says "Book" holding it up, an eager, hopeful look on his face, in a pre-occupied way, you brush him aside and say "not now, go away and play", you miss, I am sure you do, that crestfallen look on his face.
Have you ever rejected a child, in a time when you may not know it but they need you the most?
My children are very easy to please, they play quietly on there own and together, they watch TV and they watch me play on the computer, but there are times when they just need me, a little one on one time, to let them know they are important, special, needed and loved.
Really they are here for only so long, and I know its been said a million times over, but there it is, its true, they are only here for so long.
Why do we have to be so pre-occupied? Making sure the house is always clean, is the person we are talking on the phone too so vastly important? after all they have already grown up ( I presume) and they will be there later, won't they? Your children won't. That "just a minute" comes and goes and then its too late, you waited too many minutes, they are gone, you ring up your grown child on there telephone, and they are there but busy in there own lives, you forgot to teach them to stop and now its too late.
One of my all time fravorite poems:

Patty-Poem

She never puts her toys away;

Just leaves them scattered where they lay-

I try to scold her, and I say

"You make me mad!"

But when to bed she has to chase,

The toys she left about the place

Remind me of her shining face,

And make me glad.

When she grows up and gathers poise

I'll miss her harum-scarum noise,

And look in vain for her scattered toys-

And I'll be sad

Nick Kenny

I am feeding Els right now, but when I am done I think I will go read a book to my children.