Do You Know What Your Kids are Doing?

In the last few months in the United States, we have been bombarded with shootings at our schools. It even hit very close to home when there was a shooting at the Marshall County High School close to our home here in Paducah, Kentucky. Several were wounded and two young people lost their lives.

I have listened to countless interviews with those who were affected by the shootings. I have watched as anxious parents grabbed their children and cried tears of joy when they realized that their child was not among those who were wounded or killed.

One particular statement made by the parent of one of the shooters has haunted me in the last few weeks. When that father was asked how his son got the gun he used in the attack, he said he didn’t know. Specifically, he said, “I didn’t know what he was doing.”

He didn’t know what his son was doing! He lived in the same house with this child, but he didn’t know what he was doing. He probably passed by him in the house any number of times during a typical day, but he didn’t know what he was doing. He may have eaten at the same table as his son, but he didn’t know what he was doing.

Do you know what your kids are doing? Do your conversations with them really result in communication? I mean, is there talking AND listening that goes on? When you happen to be in the same room are you both so engrossed in the TV or some other electronic device that you don’t really know anything except that there is another presence in the room?

And what about that electronic device that is being used by your child? Parents, who are you communicating with that is more important than communication with your child? Is that silly little game you are playing more important than that person you brought into the world? And young people, what kind of games are you playing? Could your time be put to better use? Would your relationship with your parents be better if you talked with one another, or got out a board game and had fun playing a game together?

I know that’s a lot of questions, but I just can’t get my point across without bringing up all of those questions. We should know what our kids are doing! We should be setting the example for good communication. We should be interacting with one another as much as we can.

Parents, ask yourself these questions:

Do your children spend a great deal of time in their rooms? What are they doing?

Would they rather be out of the house with someone else? What are they doing?

Do they spend a great deal of time on their phone or computer? What are they doing?

Do you really look at the expressions on their faces? What do their expressions say?

What is their mood or body language? What do they tell you about what they’re doing?

Is there a change in their behavior? What’s going on to cause this change?

Does someone else in this world know more about what your child is doing than you do?????

Please don’t take for granted that your child will always choose the right path in life, or that he/she will never do anything wrong or get caught up in the wrong crowd.

Learn to listen with your eyes! Really look at them often and assess whether or not they are in a good place physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Don’t let that “someone” be your child!

Do you really know what your kids are doing?

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AUTHOR: Donna Faughn

Photo by Japheth Mast on Unsplash