Notes on parenting
Perhaps someday I will look back on this one and revise it. Or maybe not.
Now since a lot of my friends are becoming parents and as I get to speak with different shades of 'mommies' - I'm starting to develop an opinion on this subject.
Everyone wants the best for their own child. In their own capacity and limited knowledge, they try to achieve that.
On those lines, parenting styles are nothing but 'belief systems' developed by the 'parents' based on their own past experiences. One tries to pass on own aspirations, insecurities, fears...onto the shoulders of little ones. Nothing wrong with that per se...
Someone who's struggled all their life is accumulating enough so that the child doesn't have to go through the same grind. v/s A first-gen entrepreneur wants his child to struggle a bit, just enough to understand what it takes.
And countless examples...
You can judge someone else's belief system all you like and poke holes on what ought to be...doesn't help anyone.
It's what they believe is the best, and honestly outcomes of how child's life turns out to be when they get older is a lot more randomised than we think or at least it has a lot of variables beyond control.
The only constant is the virtues imparted in the child.
Coming back to it - the ultimate goal of a parent should be for the child to stay happy, now and in the future. What does it really take to secure that?
Parents are constantly optimising for financial or educational or other kinds of security, but being happy takes much more or much less than that...if you understand the irony of this statement.