Parental Expectations and Pressures

I am a high school student in Burleson, Texas, and would like to inform you of an issue I find very pressing in today’s society and education. As you know, education is a key factor for bettering students in our country. I have an issue with how parents’ expectations affect the mental and physical health of their children. In the research that I have done and as a student with similar issues, I have found that the strain placed on many students is excessive and downright cruel.

Since you guys seem like a group of parents concerned about the well being of children, I thought I would write you to inform you of something you might want to know. I am not saying that parents are nothing but terrible, but I think if they knew about the serious harm they were doing, it might improve life for their children. I think parents need to be supportive of their kids, especially in their education. It is not fair to the child for the parent to project their problems and responsibilities onto them. I feel like this is a common practice of parents, and most of the time they don’t even realize that they are doing it.

Kids grow up to be the future in our society and it would make me so happy if those kids could make an impact on the rest of the world. However, if parents pressure and restrict their kids to a certain path or career choice, these kids might not realize their full potential. To me, the only way to fix this is to spread awareness of the issue and practice good stress-reducing habits. It is important for kids to handle pressure positively. Since children often mirror parental behavior, it could help if parents practiced good stress-reducing habits like exercise, too. This would benefit not only the child, but also the parents.