LABOUR OF A LIFETIME

Pampered children know nothing beyond their own desires. They cannot meet the challenges which they have to face in the external world. PARENTING An Intellectual Challenge T HE present age is the age of education and the greatest need is that our generation should be equipped with the learning of the highest standard. The right role of the parents is of utmost importance in this issue. For parents there are only two options; either to accept whatever their children do or to understand their needs and minds and address them in such a way that they are able to grasp what is being said to them. Those parents who fail to do this have nothing but complaints about the behaviour of the younger generation. It must be understood that it is possible to help our children to change their attitudes. The requirement for this is the intellectual ability of the parents and elders to properly address the minds of the present smart generation. The facts however point out that majority of parents use traditional methods of putting across things to the children. This mindset of the parents needs to reassessed and a healthy blend of the traditional and the modern has to be worked out. Parents need to redefine their thinking in order to make it understandable to the new generation. It is failure in this regard that has given rise to resistance from children towards higher standards of learning. It is a question of self-training. If parents want to bring about a change of attitude towards learning in their children they must prepare themselves to be good counsellors. It is weak counselling on the part of the parents that has created this problem. The second problem in regard to this aspect is the problem of pampering. Parents in their great affection for their children often pamper them. While caring is good, pampering is bad. Pampering fosters an easygoing nature in children. A comfort loving nature is the worst thing in this world of harsh realities. Pampered children know nothing beyond their own desires. They cannot meet the challenges which they have to face in the external world. We can see many examples in our circle of acquaintance where children brought up under pampered conditions with their parents find it very