Failures of parenting

I just gave a 30-minute lecture to my brother. There were several issues addressed in that 30 minutes, but what I was trying to get into his thick skull is this.

Education is for your own future.

Frankly speaking, I see myself in him and I'm trying to steer him into the right path because my parents are not doing anything about it. They didn't in the past, and are not doing so now. I guess they don't and never learn, even this is their 3rd time raising a child.

From my perspective, I've seen enough cases (real life) to confidently conclude that what my mom is doing is not working. I have spoken to her about it on several occasions and the best she could do was to say to him: 有没有听到？

The counter-argument to this failed parenting came from this movie I watched on cable a few weeks ago. This dated movie - "Mermaids", is about a single mother raising her two daughters on her own. And in one scene, she said, "It's not like an instruction manual came with you when you're born!"

You might think that line is funny and witty at the same time. But joke aside, it says a lot about the individuality aspect of a child and the capabilities of a person to raise one. So whenever I criticise my mom about her parenting skills, a part of me feels guilty because indeed, it's not like my brother was borned with an instruction manual.

That said, it is still disheartening to see something fail infront of your eyes, and the worst part is it's not totally his fault. Though majority of it is due to him lacking in personal effort to make things better, but I doubt he even realises what he is supposed to do and why should he do it.

So all this explains why I've taken matters into my own hands. God knows what he will become in the future but I hope I've talked some sense into him. I hope he will start thinking what he wants in life. Understand the purpose of education. And start making the right decisions, independently.




If only someone did the same thing to me a decade ago, I would be grateful.