Having an OFW for a Parent “Family is the first school for young children, and parents are powerful models. ” Alice Sterling Honig, Ph.

D. Children in general, usually look up to their parents in terms of how they should act. Before everything else, the family serves as the first institution, in which children learn what are essential.

Parents are there to give their children the love that they need, teach them what is right and what is wrong, and listen to their questions. On the other hand, a child sees their parents as role models – the most important people n their life.What the parent does, the child follows. What if a child doesn’t have that parent? Nowadays, more and more Filipinos are working abroad. OFWs opt to go overseas for a number of reasons.

Some say it’s the better economic and political state of other countries. Others do because they have no other choice. There aren’t that too many jobs the Philippines can offer. And mostly it’s because of the money. They can find better salary opportunities abroad than staying in the Philippines. Each of the OFWs as their own reason to go abroad but it all sums up to the wellbeing of their family.Where is the wellbeing in that when the parent detaches from the family? A lot of things are sacrificed.

Alright, we talk everyday on long distance phone calls but do we always get to Just hangout? OFWs would miss a lot as time would pass especially seeing their son grow. Being a child of an OFW is not easy too. Growing up, children ask a lot of questions from necessities to trivial things about their parents. Questions like “What should I do? or “What did you do when you were my age? ” are pretty much normal things a child may ask but creates an impact on his development.When “parentless”, to who are we supposed to ask questions to? Children ask questions to know what to do and the answers serve as guidance. Number 6 in “6 Lessons I learned About Being a Man Growing Up Fatherless” by Brett and Kate Mckay states that mfour father doesn’t need to be your father fgure. ” This simply implies that asking questions are not necessarily to be asked to parents. Role models can be found elsewhere.

The article says that advices can be read or watched, usually coming from legacies and lessons successful men left behind.Friends can also be figures The relationship in the family is Just as important as growing up. For some OFW children, they consider their parents to have abandoned them. In the article, “Teaching kids of OFWs to cope with separation blues” by Linda Bolido, “MYLENE was 6 years old when she woke up one morning to find that her mother had left. ” Her mother left without proper goodbyes and growing up she felt resentful. Although this s not the case for all, for a parent not to be physically present all the time, good relationships are hard to make.

Another experience of an OFWs child is Rachel’s. Taken from an article in candymag. com, “growing up, she thought it was normal for her dad not to be around. ” She says it would be hard to imagine and would have seen him differently if November 26,2011, from http://www. livestrong. com/article/110276-importance- parents-role- models/ Clarke-Stewart, A. , Dunn,J.

(Eds. ). (2006). Families count, Effects on child and adolescent development. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.