Good parents give their children roots and wings. Roots to know where home is, wings to fly away and exercise what they have learned. Let us not educate our children to be rich. Let us educate them to be happy, so when they grow up they will know the value of things, not the price. Let us give wings but let us encourage them to do things themselves so that they could learn how to fly on their own. "Only a weak person needs someone else around all the time." - Sarah Desse

Life demands learning and struggling. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today.

As the story goes, shared by an unknown writer, once upon a time, there were two neighbors living next to each other. One of them was a retired teacher and another was an insurance agent who had a lot of interest in technology. Both of them had planted different plants in their garden. The retired teacher was giving a small amount of water to his plants and didn’t always give a full attention to them, while the other neighbor interested in technology, had given a lot of water to his plants and looked after them too well.

The retired teacher’s plants were simple but looked good. The insurance agent’s plants were much fuller and greener. One day, during the night, there was a heavy rain and a wind due to a minor storm. Next morning, both of the neighbors came out to inspect the damage to their garden. The neighbor who was an insurance agent saw that his plants came off from the roots and were totally destroyed. But, the retired teacher’s plants were not damaged at all and were standing firm. "If there is no struggle, there is no progress."- Frederik Douglass

The insurance agent neighbor was surprised to see it, he went to the retired teacher and asked, “We both grew the same plants together, I actually looked after my plants better than you did for yours, and even gave them more water. Still, my plants came off from the roots, while yours didn’t. How is that possible?”

The retired teacher smiled and said, “You gave your plants more attention and water, but they didn’t need to work themselves for it.  You made it easy for them.  While I gave them just an adequate amount of water and let their roots search for more.   And, because of that, their roots went deeper and that made their position stronger.  That is why my plants survived”.

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Every step toward our goal requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals. Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.  This story is about parenting where children are like plants. If everything is given to them, they will not understand the hard work it takes to earn those things.  They will not learn to work themselves and respect it.  Sometimes it’s best to guide them instead of giving them; teaching them how to walk, but let them follow their path.

By Tim Pedrosa




The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

 

Tim