Never-Ending

Our children’s constant neediness shapes us

Why are our children so needy?

When a child enters the world, he’s completely helpless and needs his parents for his very survival. As he develops, he continues to have a multitude of physical, spiritual, social, and emotional needs, and depends on his parents to provide for those needs.

Chazal explain the pasuk (Tehillim 106:3), “Ashrei oseh tzedakah b’chol eis — Fortunate are those who do charitable acts all the time,” as referring to parents, since parents are engaged in doing acts of kindness for their children all the time, throughout the day and night. If a mother feels that her work is never-ending, she’s absolutely correct.

Did you ever wonder why Hashem fashioned a world in which children have so many needs for such an extended period of time? Hashem could have chosen to create children similar to animals who are independent shortly after they’re born. Why would Hashem want us to wake up numerous times in the middle of the night tending to a newborn or a sick child? Why would Hashem want us to devote so much time to preparing breakfast, lunch, and supper for our children? Why would Hashem want us to spend countless hours in the car driving our children to school, taking them to appointments, and more?

As we know, everything in the physical world has a parallel in the spiritual world.