Raising Children to Succeed: Six Essential “Hardships” for Early Success

For the sake of your children’s future, “let them free” so that they can grow into adulthood.

1. The hardships of studying

“Ten years of arduous study, 100 things turned into steel.”

The lives of educated people and those who are not are completely different. Children who do not like to go to school are very comfortable, while other children listen, then become distracted, while others play while they study.

But once they grow up, they become a person without knowledge, they know nothing, they can only do the most tiring jobs and live the most difficult life.

They have “missed” the first half of their lives in laziness, and they have to pay the price in desperation in the second half of their lives. Although studying is hard, life is even harder if you don’t study.

The poet Lin Bu, in the Northern Song Dynasty, once said: “If a child is not diligent, he will suffer in his old age, if a child listens to his family, he will be happy in his old age”.

The hardship in studying starts from suffering small things, don’t be afraid of hardship, take the initiative to suffer, the more you suffer, the broader your future will be.

2. The hardship of working

There is a famous saying: “It is impossible to let children work, when they grow up, they will be less respected.”

Parents should encourage their children to do housework, they can do more within their capacity, not only to share the family responsibility but also to let the children understand the meaning and importance of labor.

Studies have shown that the more children love to work, the higher their success rate in the future, and the happier they will be in life, which is something that children who do not love to work cannot have.

Really loving a child is not putting it in a honey jar, but knowing how to let go in a reasonable way, so that the child has the opportunity to grow up.

3. Suffer from criticism

A host once said something like this: “It is easy to give birth to a child but difficult to raise a child; it is easy to raise a child but difficult to teach a child”.

Many parents are reluctant to criticize their children because they love them, which makes their children become more and more ignorant and stubborn.

If parents do not criticize and “discipline” their children in a reasonable way, they are actually spoiling and indulging their children. No child likes to be criticized, but that discomfort helps the child to know where they are lacking, and understand how they have not done a good job or have not obeyed.

4. Suffer from thinking

Confucius once said: “Learning without thinking will be confused, thinking without learning will be tiring”, that is, “Learning without thinking will become confused, and just thinking without learning will be very tiring”.

These children have given up on using their brains proactively, do not want to solve problems, and have fallen into a passive state both literally and figuratively.

All the procrastination, inactivity, boredom, regression or stagnation in grades is because children do not want to ‘suffer’ in thinking. In order to train a child to be hardworking and studious, parents should give their children appropriate control. Perhaps, in this world, no child is truly stupid, but only children who are ‘stupid from laziness’.

5. Suffer from “persistence”

Teaching children perseverance is teaching them to be passionate about everything they do, to have goals, to have a long-term vision, and to be willing to persevere no matter what difficulties or obstacles they encounter.

In life, there are always regrets, and only perseverance can resolve them.

True happiness is the result of overcoming difficulties. If you have never experienced deep pain, you will not experience intense joy.

On the path of education, the most important thing is that parents do not give up, do not teach their children carelessly, because perseverance in what they should persevere is the greatest responsibility for children.

6. Suffer from ‘failure’

In life, things do not go as expected 8 or 9 times out of 10, there are more losses than wins.

Parents with a narrow vision only blame their children, making their children timid and cowering for fear of being scolded. But tolerant parents not only tell their children how to be successful, but also give them the ‘opportunity’ to face failure.

The road to adulthood always has ups and downs, parents must let their children learn to endure failure, because it is a good medicine for growth. A mind that has been confronted with failures will become stronger; a life that has experienced failures will become more glorious.