Carlos Elias

Rodrigo Hernandez

Mason Spounias

Editorial Challenge: Are Adults Helping Children By Pushing Them to Achieve?

The act of pushing one to achieve is positive in nature. It drives the person to become a

better version of themselves; but in practice, these good intentions get twisted into incredible

burdens on the shoulders of the recipients. One may say that parents only want the best for

their child, and he or she might cite the 4th commandment of “honor thy mother and father.”

Even though the incentive is friendly, the fact that their demanding behavior pressure the child

creates a hurried behavior from the child, affecting his or her life in a negative way.Stress

makes everything harder. Parents demanding success is super stressful, therefore parents

pushing their children to achieve are making it harder on their spawn. Along with stress, the

parents’ involvement can also decrease the child’s willingness to succeed just because

someone else told them to do it.

This type of situation occurred to each one of us last year during finals week. Of course,

we individually studied hard for the exams because we knew they were important. Since we are

all student athletes, we were under an incredible amount of pressure from our parents and

coaches to excel in both our exams and physical activities. This mindset of stressfulness

fostered a breeding ground for insecurity and self-doubt to grow, which led to a noticeable

decrease in our work and quality of life for all of us. Having first hand experience is the best way

to test something, so we can attest with utmost certainty and assertion that the demanding of

achievement in a child should not be practiced, for it mostly carries negative effects in the child.