There are some people who are hard workers, who take action and do things. Then there are others that know how to get others to do their work. The former are admired and hard work is seen as a virtue that we must attempt to instill in our children. And yet I feel that it is the latter group that has an easier life and the hard workers suffer under drudgery. I know a housewife with two part-time maids, whose full-time working spouse seems to be doing a lot of household chores and yet from their conversations you would feel that she has a huge workload and her husband is happy to help her out in every way he can. I especially want to point out that why I am even giving this any thought is because all this happens in a very sweet and charming way, with no party feeling used or burdened. I am not sure if this knack of charming others to do your work is a cultivated skill or if it is a sheer stroke of luck that she has a hard-working partner. In any case I am intrigued.
This isn’t the grasshopper of the fables we are talking about, one who lazed around and starved in the winter, but a grasshopper who played through the summer while the ant happily filled up the winter stores for the both of them. I am really wondering if I shouldn’t be teaching my kids this skill instead of self-sufficiency and hard work. Damsels-in-distress types seem to have it much easier in life, no?
Raising kids in a non-native environment while constantly worrying about striking the right balance.
2 comments:
Wow, AM, very nicely put. I wonder when i teach humility, is it all the real skills in this world to be taught. As employees we need boast about our talents, skills, etc. But in the end,it is the nature of the humans. Some kids are born braggarts while others are empathatic while others are shy. As long as we are all true to our nature, we will be acting without any conscience problems and true to ourselves. Ofcourse we need to teach kids all the good we can, cuz bad is easy to imbibe than good. I know you mostly wrote this as an injustice happening in the current world, where we are so far away from the moral way of life, taking advantage of others without even knowing that we are doing that, or without any qualms. It is pathetic.
I am completely intrigued by this question. I don't have any answers, and had never thought of it that way.
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