The Hypocrisy of Parenthood

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Spending 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for almost 9 weeks now with a 5 year-old teenager teaches one a lot of things. It teaches lessons on staying calm in the chaos, being positive in the pain, effective teaching methods, what really annoys one about members in one's home, and so on. The most recent lesson I have learnt is that I am an annoyingly hypocritical parent. Let me explain.

My daughter and son share my almost outdated iPad Mini, although it's hardly fair to call it mine anymore. While Madeleine does math homeschooling assignments, Ruben watches and plays Number Blocks (thank you BBC!) on the iPad. When it's snack time, Madeleine gets a go on the iPad while Ruben eats his apple slices. It's like a well oiled machine most of the time. It does, however, mean that the iPad is always around. As it was today during lunch.

Madeleine was, naturally, drawn to the iPad while eating her sandwich. She gets distracted like that easily, and I prefer for her to finish one task before going on to the next, which is why I got a little cross with her when I noticed she wasn't eating, but playing something on the iPad. I don't know who she gets that from...

I said, "Put down the iPad and finish your sandwich, please. You need to finish your cucumber slices too before you can have the iPad back." I nearly added, "No technology at the diningroom table!" when I realised I was pointing at said iPad with my phone, sitting next to my laptop. What a hypocrite! The words: "Do as I say, not as I do!" jump to mind. Now I know where she gets that from...

It's the exact opposite of what we see in God's care and guidance; the way He shows His love as the loving Father. He has never expected anything of us that He hasn't done Himself. Jesus says in John 13:34-35 "As I have loved you, love one another." In Hebrews 4:15 we read that Jesus, our High Priest, has been tempted in every way, just as we are, but remained blameless. That means He can have empathy with us. More so than someone who has never been tempted. He stepped down from heaven to become human exactly for this reason.

There is no hypocrisy in Him. No sense of unapproachability or distance. He knows. He feels. He shares our pain, anxiety and weakness. Yet He remains God. The perfect sacrifice. The perfect Saviour. The perfect example.

Now, excuse me as I try to prise the iPad from my 2.5 year-old son's remarkably strong grip with one hand, because my other hand is holding a phone...

Selah.

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