These days, kids are under a lot of pressure to be the best at everything. Parents are making their kids participate in activities and sports that the son/daughter may not even want to take part in. I personally know a few people who have parents that are described in the article “The Child Trap”. My parents were always strict about mostly everything that I did, but when I see the pressures that my cousins go through, I feel like my parents take it easy on me. My three cousins are completely overparented by their mom and dad. School is the main subject that the parents are strict about. All three of my cousins have to take AP classes and do well in them. If they come home with a bad grade, the parents will make sure that the kids do not go out that weekend or do anything but study and do work. They have to participate in a few activities afterschool along with take SAT classes, take practice tests, come to family events etc. To top it off, they have the mind set that they have to go to an Ivy league school like NYU or Princeton, and the parents will not accept anything less then that. Every time I asked my cousin to come out with me to the mall or out for lunch her response would be, ”hold on let me ask my mom”
…2 minutes later…
“no sorry I cant my mom wont let me, I have to do my SAT work and I have a test that I have to study for”. After a while, I stopped asking because I knew exactly what her answer would be. I guess being strict about school is a good thing but only to a certain extent. My cousin would get so fed up about her parents that she would want to go against what they wanted just to prove a point. When this happens, you know the parents have gone way past their limit.
I knew a lot of people like that. I had a friend whom I would always ask to hang out with me on like weekends and stuff like that, and when he asked his parents they would want to know every little detail possible about what is going on. Then, they would decide on whether or not it would be okay. The only thing he was really allowed to do was hang out with me at my house, and he came to the movies with my friends and I once. We tried to get him out of the house, but we couldn't. He was way too sheltered by his parents of all the bad things that could happen to him in the big world, and I guess people's houses were the only truly safe places for him to go, according to his parents.
ReplyDeleteI agree to what you’re trying to say about parents being over protective and pushing them to strive more than they can. I know a friend who couldn’t get out of his house at times. It was every other month he can get out. Also, his parents pushed him to taking all honors and AP classes throughout high school and he did. He never had a regular class it had to be neither honors or AP. I was shocked because have a strict parent can ruin his life. His parents also did not want him to do anything except study study STUDY. I think they should have gave him a break at times. Next, whenever he gets a bad grade he always gets lectured how he’s not going to Med school and how he’s not going to become a doctor. It always put him in a bad mood because it hurts when a parent says that, but we know why they saying that so the child can push themselves even harder in their school work. I think parents need to be calm and let the kid make a decision not them because than the kid wouldn’t learn how to make their own decisions. I believe that his parents just want him to do well in life, but also I believe they need to let go of him so he can make his own decisions. I say that because when he got into college it ruined his academic career for some weeks because of all the freedom he got.
ReplyDeleteI can really relate to this because i also have cousins who are extremely protected by their parents. Everytime i would want to hang out with them, their parents would always say no because they are either too busy studying or too busy doing other extracurricular activities that their parents make them do. Even at family gatherings, they would have to leave earlier just so they can go home and study some more for school. I know that their parents just want what's best for them and their future, but it would be nice for them to take a break and hang out with me once in awhile.
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