A child, to some parents, is a person who they can give guidance to… but for other parents, a child is someone who they can push their own beliefs and dreams onto. Soon-to-be parents can regularly find themselves daydreaming about their future child, telling themselves that their child will never make the same mistakes that they did back then. Why? Because parents see children as “…the renewal of self in the second chance; the reliving of one’s own childhood” (Berelson 255). Children are impressionable, and parents take heed of that to try to somehow create a mini-them to live vicariously through. As humans, we are naturally proud of our creations, but we are also born narcissists. What better work of art than your own child who acts like a superior version of yourself when you were younger? This is where the running joke of “It’s not my dream, dad/mom! It’s yours!” stems from in American teen movies where the child hits the breaking point of their parent wanting the child to succeed for their personal benefit, not the child’s. Even Hollywood has jested about the way that parents treat their children in
A child, to some parents, is a person who they can give guidance to… but for other parents, a child is someone who they can push their own beliefs and dreams onto. Soon-to-be parents can regularly find themselves daydreaming about their future child, telling themselves that their child will never make the same mistakes that they did back then. Why? Because parents see children as “…the renewal of self in the second chance; the reliving of one’s own childhood” (Berelson 255). Children are impressionable, and parents take heed of that to try to somehow create a mini-them to live vicariously through. As humans, we are naturally proud of our creations, but we are also born narcissists. What better work of art than your own child who acts like a superior version of yourself when you were younger? This is where the running joke of “It’s not my dream, dad/mom! It’s yours!” stems from in American teen movies where the child hits the breaking point of their parent wanting the child to succeed for their personal benefit, not the child’s. Even Hollywood has jested about the way that parents treat their children in