Credit: Houston Chronicle

The development of an individual, at whatever rate, involves the interplay of many internal and external factors. People have their intrinsic abilities, which may imply talents and they also have the potentials to learn skills that are not within the domain of their natural talents. Parenting can play a vital role in the shaping of a child’s developmental trajectory if they avail the right kind of learning materials and assistance with the necessary support to gradually master the content. However, the mistake many parents do is insisting or controlling the efforts they deploy on the daughter to achieve given results. In particular, Chinese parents exert excessive pressure on their children, which is often counterproductive. Although many Chinese kids develop the skills in mathematics or playing piano due to the efforts directed by their parents, if the parents make mistakes in the process, the outcomes are often disastrous and detrimental to the development of the child. In the story, the mother was not very skillful in cultivating the desirable outcomes in the daughter, and she failed when the child rebelled.  Continue reading