[rcheu]

I don’t think that’s a viable strategy in today’s world. The kids I knew growing up that were pushed hard by their parents are doing much better (and happier) than those that were not.

Kids don’t reliably make good long term decisions for themselves. It’s more fun to play fortnite than to practice for a math/piano competition. They can’t see the long term impact of not working out and eating poorly.

I got pushed pretty hard as a kid. It wasn’t fun at the time, but now I appreciate it. There’s a widening gap between the rich and poor in America, and it’s a lot nicer to be on the rich side.

[war1025]

There is a difference between kids whose parents kept an eye on them and made sure they didn't go too far off the beaten path and kids whose parents structured their lives so heavily that they never had a chance to breathe for themselves.

If you are from a stable family situation, it's easy to gloss over how shitty some kids have it at home.

[socrates1998]

I specifically said to give them a variety of activities. Letting them play fortnite everyday doesn't qualify as a variety of activities.

And I never said to not push a kid. If that's what you think will help him, then do it.

If a kid has a bad habit of quitting things when they get tough, then you may need to "force" them to do something.

And part of having them try a variety of activities will mean forcing them to do it.

You can make them do a variety of things while also letting them have unstructured free time.

I think too, when I say unstructured free time, I mean outside play time with no screens.

I guess you could say that a parent is "forcing" them to not use a screen, so it's not really "free play time", but I think making kids go outside and play without giving them any directions on what to do, is a very good thing.

[watwut]

> The kids I knew growing up that were pushed hard by their parents are doing much better (and happier) than those that were not.

For all the nostalgia, parents often make decisions based on their own observations about their own generation and themselves. It is interesting that none of these articles ever consider that some parent may go to the other extreme, because not everything was sunny and awesome all the time in the past.