A man came home from work to find his 5 year old son waiting for him at the door. "Daddy?"
"Yeah?" replied the man.
"Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?
"Well son, I don't really think that's any business of yours" the man said.
"Please daddy, please tell me, how much do you make an hour?" pleaded the little boy.
"If I tell you, you must promise you won't tell anybody else"
"I promise" said the little boy.
"Alright then" said his father. "I make $25.00 an hour."
"Oh," the little boy replied. He looked a little sad, then said "Daddy, may I borrow $10.00 please?"
His father was furious. "If the only reason you wanted to know how much money I make is so you can borrow some you can go straight off to bed. I work long and hard to provide the things you need, not so you can borrow money to spend on lollies or toys or whatever junk it is you want $10 for!"
The little boy burst into tears and made his way to his room. After an hour or so the father had calmed down and went to his son's room. "I'm sorry for being so hard on you earlier son. If you tell me what you wanted the $10 for and it's a worthwhile thing I'll think about giving it to you."
The little boy ran across the room to his piggy bank and counted out all it's contents, exactly $15.00.
"$15.00, that's a lot of money son. Surely that's enough for what you wanted to buy" said the father.
"Well with the $10 you'll give me it will be" the little boy replied.
"What is it that you need $25.00 for son."
"For you Dad. I'd like to buy an hour of your time."
Source: Rewritten by Scott Higgins modelled on a story of unknown source.
Applications: family, parenting, fathers, children, pace of life, busyness, priorities, time, commitment, work, values.