The opposite of love is not hate but indifference.  A sociologist interviewed some young people regarding their impressions of their homes and their parents.  One young woman told him that she lived in an apartment in a big city, and after supper in the summer the children on the block gathered in the streets to play.  But after awhile one would say that she had to go home because her mother had told her to be in before 8 o’clock, or a father would whistle and a boy would have to leave, or a mother would call and others would have to head home.

The young woman said, “They would all go, and I would wait for my father or my mother to call me in.  They never did.”

That little girl wanted her parents to care enough to expect some things of her.  One of the best ways to discount a person is to pretend they simply don’t exist.  Are you discounting someone by simply paying no attention to them?