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I'm horrified by the idea that we might improve a child at the expense of everything else. Clearly I'm not against children learning.



You seem to be against them doing any work though. That is part of learning how to survive in this world. Look at OWS. They must have all had "great" parents who let them be kids. They still are.


A little work never ruined a kid's life. Indeed, it's an effective way to build some good healthy feelings of accomplishment, confidence, and self-worth. It may also help improve their self-control, their resilience, and initiative.

For a classic portrayal of these effects in film, consider Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi.


I should probably be clearer.

My concern is not with kids learning stuff. I read to my daughters all the time (they're 2 and 6 months respectively and have been read stories since the day they came home from the hospital), they will have the best education I can get them and it will be made clear to them that they are expected to go to university. We try and expose them to new things, balance indoor and outdoor activities, moderate their TV watching (and make sure that it's nothing harmful) and so on.

But what concerns me is where you get people who seem to think that kids should learn at the expense of all other activities, that fun is, in some way, a bad thing, that it will make them weak and not teach them about the "realities of the world".

For some parents setting up the sort of scenario in the story where the kid runs a vending machine is a natural extension of the personalities of the parents and the child. They'll do it, sell the idea to the kids, the kids get engaged and it becomes something that they do together and enjoy.

What I have an issue with is where parents do this sort of thing in a way which is forced, which is pushed beyond the point where it's enjoyable because it's educational and that's worth the sacrifice.

The reality is that most of the things that might be learned from this (cash flow, inventory, basic logistics) are not hard, they are things which can be grasped fairly easily by anyone bright. I bet that most entrepreneurs didn't have their parents to teach them this stuff and I bet that the practical difference between a child who did this and a child who was bought up with a decent basic attitude to money from a well managed normal allowance would be zero by age 21.

With an exercise like this balance what they're actually going to get out of it (in this case potentially very little they wouldn't otherwise learn) with what it "costs". If both parent and child are enjoying it then the cost is zero (or negative) so great, if not then I think it's something you should drop pretty quickly and try something else.

All the things you list that they might learn are great with one possible exception. I feel wary about teaching resilience, at least directly.

The world is going to throw plenty of shit at your children, almost certainly more than they deserve. They're going to learn that lesson anyway. For my money your job as a parent is to protect them, support them and help them develop the skills to deal with it when that comes along, but I think that stops short of hurling more shit in an attempt to "toughen them up".

I'm not saying that they should be mollycoddled, far from it, they do need to learn to deal with tough situations, but for my money the best way to do that is to help them manage the real world situations that come up, rather than simulating potentially unpleasant learning experiences when the two of you could be out doing something enjoyable together.




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