What would you do?

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by morethanpretty

A happy child that becomes a happy adult is probably more likely to survive and be a contributing member of society. Should they just taught to be mindless zombies who do their work without any complaints? Thats what I'm getting from Merc, XO, and V...

Adults who are parents have a right to pursue a happy fulfilled life and have an obligation to. If you give up on your dreams/happiness, what kind of example does that set for your child? If you think you can hide your unhappiness, most likely not.

That was not my intent. A happy child is good. We should strive to make those that we love the most to be happy... when we can. But there are limits. And those limits include duties that we have as parents to mold children into functioning adults as freestanding members of society. And I do not believe that you can be a sucessful parent if everything you do is guided by trying to keep your children happy. You are not there to be their best friends. As I said before, if you get that in the end good on you. But it should never guide how you parent. Anyone who has been a parent knows this.