Saturday, November 21, 2009

Pampeing Children is a bad idea

Parents always want to give the best to their children because children are God given asset and are usually few in number at this time compared to big families our parents used to have before. During my time, children of 6 was considered as few and most have 10 or a dozen especially in the village. Nowadays children are brought up in such a way that they are materialistically rich, pampered and living in great comfort zone. They are so used to spending money and also enjoying a lavish life style that does not seem to match with their potential future earning, I would say, at least the first few years when they graduate, come out to work and face the real world. This parental pampering act will not benefit them at all, but also to spoil them and reduce their competitivenss in the society. Young people nowadays yet to experience what real life is all about, already developed the bad habit to buy high end products and don on branded costumes and apparels, be selective on food and want to dine on reputable and high class restaurants. They do not realize how difficult it is to earn money in the real working world! Subsquently when they are so used to what they already have presently, they simply could not take a step backward to lead a more inferior and simple life. If there is any happening that turns against them in the future such as an economic recession, thus forcing them into a more humble and modest life style, they will suffer and will feel extremely miserable. Under such circumstances, they might attempt all kinds of method, both legal or illegal, just to satisfy their insatiable appetite on materialistic things that they are already so used to. How dangerous this could be, they could end up doing all kind of things in their pursuit of monetary gain or even go to jail!

When we were young, because of our parents had more children and therefore resources were thin, and every sibling was having only the bare minimum in order to make our ends meet. We started to grow and taste what poverty was all about, we appreciate life more as we work hard to achieve what we are today, earn and spend only what we can afford to spend. For that, we learned to be thrifty and respect our parents because they toiled for us so that we could have enough food and education. Just imagine how tough life was for our not so highly-educated parents in the setting of a village background to earn and support 6 children. Young people of this time tends to take thing for granted and they would not be able to appreciate how much their parents had done and sacrified for them.

The bible had taught us to "seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things shall be added unto you". We, as parents have not heeded this and done our part enough and set the right examples for them. We work hard for material gain so that our children can enjoy lot of things but do not emphasize enough to them on this spiritual aspect of biblical teaching. We are at fault and this is really our big mistake!

I pray that God to help us all to become better parents and give us the wisdom to teach our children to be better persons in the future. We want our children to have discipline and work hard to gain what is proper and not to take any short cut and easy way out for their life in the future to come. Life is not meaned to be easy, and God uses the process of going through life to train us to be tough and be dependent on Him instead of blindly seeking material gain. May God bless us all!

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