Should we influence teenagers in the choices they make about further education?
Children are the ones who ensure the continuity of the unstoppable cycle of life. They reach this world through us, we give them all our love, but we can never force them to accept and remain only in the square of our thoughts. They have their own opinions, even much more moderate and with the step of time.
There is a big difference between guiding and advising a teenager about making an important decision about their future and forcing or encouraging them to go down a path that we guess is the best one to follow. his. For the experience he has, of course, the parent is much more informed and careful, but there comes a stage in our children that should make us more open-minded.
Whenever I find myself being overly insistent on asking my child to do something at all costs, or feeling uneasy when he doesn’t agree to do something the way I like it, I turn my eyes right myself and look carefully at what might be that part of the past that I am trying to recover through him.
I ask: Do we have the right to decide on their future choices? No, not at all, we have no right to choose, or even hope that our children will be an extension of our lives. Does it, perhaps, help us realize our unfulfilled dreams, or heal our failure and weakness?!
It is time to understand that if our child gives up being himself and fulfilling his inclinations, then he will have to pay a very high price in the future, but also an unfair one. There is no doubt that the pressure they exert on children to advise them to make the right choices is explained by the interest and love we show towards them, but we must not forget that we must respect their choices, where they feel most safer and more successful.
We should not be afraid and hinder them in the skills where they feel most confident. Our support for the skills they possess will help them accept and know themselves, make choices or make the right decisions. It will help them make plans for today, for tomorrow, for their careers—plans that fit their talents and goals. Supporting the choice they make will help them shape their future, follow their dreams. It will help them to be themselves and, why not, successful.
The choice is theirs. All we have to do is support them and encourage them where they feel themselves.
