Today Mr. Stewart asked the class if they have ever been pressured by their parent’s to be a certain way and if they thought if their parents knew that they were pressuring them this much. He then asked if anyone felt like “Hell yeah I’m going to put pressure on my kid, have you seen the kids who don’t get pressured from their parents?!” and that made me think.
Growing up, I was never really pressured by my grandma, who raised me, because all I knew was that I didn’t want to be like my mom and I wanted to be in a way better than her. I then started to think about how my kids aren’t going to have that bad example in their lives since I’m an only child and didn’t make the mistakes my mom made, they’re not going to have a personal connection with someone who messed up for them. I mean, yeah, I’m going to be able to tell them all of the bad things I did and why I didn’t do the things my mom did, but what if they think “Well you did blank and you ended up in a good position in life, so if I do blank I’ll be able to get by too”?
Often children can believe that doing certain things can lead to other, better things. And while it often does, with school, and work, and once you start to get older, different things can start to seem good and bad, but can sometimes turn out the opposite way. Additionally, people and their kids are very different, and learn, think, and function in completely different ways. For example, my mother went to law school and graduated at the top of her class. To me, that seems like the most boring and repetitive job, and even though the money is good, I don't believe it's worth it. Other people might though, and that's just because we think differently and want different things out of life.
ReplyDeleteEven if parents don't directly pressure their children, children may still feel implicit from their parents, in that they have high expectations of them but don't directly state them or enforce them. This could induce heavy stress on students, even if they were never explicitly pressured by their parents.
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ReplyDeleteI think it is a tough balance for parents to find what is too much and what is not enough pressure for a child. With too much pressure it causes stress and not a very good learning environment for the child. Plus when they goto college and are on their own for the first time, you may see the kid go off and take advantage of all the freedom. Also if a parent is too loose on their kid, the kid won't learn responsibility and hard work. It is tough for a parent to find the right balance both in school and the child's social life.
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