Parents under pressure suffer crisis of confidence

NZ Herald, 12 April 2008
Grandmothers are watching in horror as their children turn into over-ambitious, competitive parents with pampered, demanding offspring, says a report into how women's experience of motherhood has changed over the generations. Baby-boomers who brought up children in a time when they say they were allowed to just "get on with it" claim their daughters are being put under huge pressure to rigidly control everything in their own babies' lives, from food intake and exercise to after-school Mandarin lessons. more...

If we accept the findings of this report it is an interesting exercise to take the next step and consider what the effect might be on children particularly when they hit the teen years. A lack of personal initiative? A tendency to equate activity and achievement with self worth? Perhaps the same lack of self confidence their mothers are said to be experiencing, particularly when they call short of parental expectations.

If so what are the messages that we need to be giving teens who grow up in such an environment? Certainly they need to learn to "play" - to relax and not to be so busy and constantly strive to perform. They need to find self worth in who they are in the eyes of God, not in what they achieve. They need to see that character is more important then competitions and achievement.