There’s so many factors to how kids are brought up these days. Environmental factors, parental influences, peer pressure, media influence…

When the kid’s a saint, well of course the parents will be boasting about their child and how it was because of good parenting that they were the way they were. Flip it around however, then the parents will start blaming everyone and their grandmother except themselves about what when wrong. My friend, let’s call him Mason, has probably the most saintly brother you could find. Perfect undergrad GPA in a double major of engineering and economics, President of the engineering student council, full ride to Stanford, 4.0 GPA in his first quarter of grad school… you really wonder how these people do something like that.

Mason on the other hand has a 2.something GPA, switched his major to an easier one, and seems to just play games and sleep most of the time he’s somewhat functional. He’s horrible with deadlines and procrastination. He’s incredibly unreliable and seems to have an opinion about everything. Personally I think the major switch was a good idea only because he ended up hating his current major and got poor grades in it, while his new major seems to be a much better fit. Looking at it though, is it ever alright for his parents to say that he’ll never amount to anything? That he’s going to fail at his schoolwork? At his chosen profession? That he probably won’t even get a college diploma?

I don’t think its ever ok for that.

Sure, its going pretty badly for him. That doesn’t mean that you should discourage him even more. Some kids they’ll take the words and try to prove them wrong. Mason’s not like that. He’ll take those words and amount to them because he’s one of those types that is influenced by the environment around him. Negative thinking is not the way to go.

I look around me at the parents that completely disown their kid when they do something bad and I wonder how they can even do that to something that they have raised and loved. I’ve done some pretty bad things in my life, but my parents still love me. I’ve disappointed them and dishonored them and every other thing a little Asian child can do to their parents (think Mulan or that one crazy Asian mom video on Youtube) and yet, they’re still there for me. My question is where did the mentality that Mason’s parents took come from? I really am thankful for my parents and frankly I don’t think I tell them that enough.