12/02/2026
Dear Parents, our children are very different from what we used to be when we were children. A lot of it has to do with how the world is now so different from what it used to be. Nowadays, it’s so much more difficult to find a job, even after finishing graduate studies. It’s so much more difficult to buy a house. Even renting a place in the big city requires a good credit standing. It’s so much more difficult to live independently. And so, as early as high school, things like what our children want to be when they grow up, what courses to take, what careers to pursue become seemingly a matter of life and death. While we may not pressure them, they try their very best and push themselves to the limit to get high grades and stand out from everyone else. To them, one low grade can make the difference between getting hired and getting denied. Even when they haven’t finished studying yet, they strive to get certifications and more advanced skills on jobs that were unheard of 30 years ago because they know how difficult life is. And yet, they also find the time to worry about how they are going to take care of their parents when they grow old, contribute to household expenses, or help in sending their younger siblings to school.
At the same time that our children are working on their own futures, they face the increasingly complicated dynamics of making friends and maintaining interpersonal relationships. Social rituals are no longer what they used to be. The added layers of rapidly changing technologies and social media (that they were born into) means they are navigating through complex patterns of communication. They face forms of bullying we have never faced before when we were younger. They are bombarded daily with unrealistic standards of beauty and success, as social media algorythims pierce through their insecurities and trap them into a cycle of self-defeating thoughts and negative emotions.
Despite all the complexities of this new world they have to navigate through, our children still try to adapt to the dynamics we have set for them in our own families. They try their best to balance establishing their own identities while living out the values we have instilled in them.
At the same time our children are adapting to the complexities and demands of this current generation, they are also trying their best to adapt to the demands and expectations of our older generation. This is salient in the way our children interact with their teachers, professors, and bosses.
The truth is that the world has changed so fast that many of what we learned about being parents from our own parents are no longer relevant in the development of our children today. And so, there will be times when it seems like our children are just so hard to understand. This is so common it seems that even people in power and infleunce (a senator, perhaps) may start calling our children weak. But, imagine how a little bit of understanding and compassion can nurture a child. Dear parents, no words from anyone else matter more than how we believe in our own children.
Our children are 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐆, more than we think.
