What should a parent expect out of their child?

Nothing.

This is something I've been thinking about for some time. Parents often push their children to go into a certain direction, to get good careers, to become the heir to the family business, or even to give them advice.

Parents should do none of these things. Well, they can, but those take second priority after providing comfort to their children.

See, children will naturally take risks. They may do something stupid, hurt themselves, and come back to the parent to find comfort.

This is the role of the parent. Simply to provide comfort.

In a healthy childhood, children will bounce around on this danger-comfort axis. In the middle, there's risk: doing a jump in a playground, making new friends, or going to school. If they get hurt, then they have a place to go to. Comfort, home, their parents. When they're ready to take another risk, they can leave the nest and keep going.

When kids don't have this, then that's when kids either become completely risk-averse or they take risks too much.

So while parents can push kids to do something, to follow a certain career, or even to give advice, their primary goal should just be to love and support their children.

Robot Landscape


By the way, don't take my word for any of this. This is just my take, and I have little to no qualifications apart from my own experiences. I'm not a parent, I only know the receiving end of a parent/child relationship. If you want a source, this concept is mentioned in this video: How the Alt-Right is Like an Abusive Relationship (live)