Do Parents Put Too Much Pressure On Their Kids?

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(Image via Pxfuel)

Kaydence Royland, Writer

Parents need to stop putting so much pressure on their kids. 

Parents these days push their kids to be perfect or close to perfection. Sometimes it’s because they want you to do well in school as they did, or they want you to do better than they did in school, which shouldn’t be the case. They should help you to do better, not get mad or yell at you because you didn’t get the good grades they wanted. Parents should be more understanding, especially because they had to go through school the same way their kids did. 

Parents also need to realize that when they yell at their kids because of their grades that they’re destroying their self-esteem, and that’s what causes depression; feeling that they’re dumb or not able to do it. It may also lead to anxiety, bipolar disorder, and even schizophrenia, and depending on how bad the kid is feeling or how bad the mental illness is, it could potentially lead to suicide. The article As Teen Suicide Rate Increases, States Look to Schools to Address Crisis  states that “In April 2018 the suicide rates among U.S. young from ages 10-17 had increased by 70 percent due to stress in school.” Over half the time parents don’t even realize that they’re causing their kids to develop those mental illnesses. They also don’t realize that what they’re doing is wrong until their kids say something about it.

Parents wanting their kids to be perfect is a joke some parents don’t seem to understand. Nobody can be perfect. Ever. So instead of pushing their kids, they should be helping them to grow where they are instead of trying to force them to be somewhere they’re not. Now, this isn’t just aimed towards parents, but to the kids as well to hopefully help them get the courage to talk to their parents about how they feel stressed and overwhelmed because they can’t meet their parent’s expectations, and how it might be causing them to develop a mental illness. If you feel like you might have developed a mental illness, you should talk to your parents or talk to a doctor. 

In society now, not just parents should be aware of what they’re causing to happen to their kids but schools, staff, and students need to know too. It’s not all due to parents and the staff and students at school, but it doesn’t help the kid. Especially if they already have a mental illness, it can cause it to get worse. It can get to the point where the kid thinks the only way out is to commit suicide, and I’m speaking for everyone when I say this, nobody wants their kid, classmate, or family member to commit suicide. If you’re feeling this way or have a mental illness, talk to your parents and talk to a doctor. As a society, we need to learn more about mental illnesses and suicide and how to act towards someone who has a mental illness or is suicidal. In the whole world, there have been 800,000 people who commit suicide a year. That’s a huge number, and it’s really scary. As a society, we need to do better.