The race for the cheese

I was talking the other day to an old friend of mine and, as usual, the main topic was our children, because that’s about all that we have in common. Mostly about her children, because what’s really to talk about mine? They don’t go to school and they don’t have career goals… well, as you are aware I hope, my daughter does have very serious goals, but writing, really, that’s not a even a real thing… Don’t worry, that doesn’t bother me in the least, I’m not interested in impressing other people. What interests me is for my children to be happy! Building lives that allow them to be happy, not just drag through their days waiting for the weekend and post TGIF memes.

The conversation I was telling you about focused on my friend’s eldest daughter who came up with the ‘crazy idea’ of joining the school band, something apparently popular among American teenagers. The parents’ main objection is that’s a complete waste of time when she should focus on grades and getting into an Ivy League college, because nothing else would do. A state school, that’s out of the question. A goal that’s got nothing to do with what the girl wants. Getting your kid into an Ivy League school is a dream many parents share. We don’t have that sort of schools in my country, but still parents make huge financial sacrifices paying private tutors so their children can get into top colleges. In fact, it’s the same all over the world. You must have read about the tremendous challenges Chinese parents put on their children.
The reason? Money - go to a good school, get a good job, make good money. The definition of a successful life.
I could understand this from the perspective of someone who’s had a life of hardships. It used to be that poor peasants worked till they dropped to give their children better lives. But we’re talking about 21st century parents here, middle-class people who’ve had access to higher education and got decent jobs. And if you talked to them, most will tell you they’re not happy with their lives, they work too much and barely have money to cover their mortgages and generally make ends meet. People who are in the system and ought to see the system is broken. People who have spent their lives playing by the rules and have little to show for it. Besides the house and the car, their lives are a collection of frustrations. Still, they’re willing to push their children as hard as they can to follow the same path on the insane notion that they will beat the system!
Like so many rats trapped in a maze, running around all their lives hoping to get to the end with the good Swiss cheese! At some point you’d expect to figure it out that only those who designed the maze get the Swiss cheese!

Thanks for reading