A Relationship lesson from Plants

There were two independent houses seperated by a wall. In one lived a young techie and in another an elderly retired man. Both of them planted identical saplings on their respective side of the wall. The young guy supplied his plant with a lot of water and high quality manure. The retired man however gave his plant a small quantity of water and little manure. The techie's sapling grew into a lush green leafy plant. The retired person's plant was near normal but much more luxuriant than his neighbour's. One night there was a heavy rain. Next morning both came out to see the fate of their plants. To the techie's surprise his plant had been uprooted whereas his neighbour's was unharmed. The techie turned to the neighbour and asked, "Why was my plant uprooted by the rains despite such good care whereas yours stayed firm and strong despite just a little care?" The neighbour answered look young man you supplied everything the plant would need in abundance since the plant did not have to do anything on its own to search for what it needed the roots of your plants haven't gone deep down. I was supplying my plant just enough to keep it alive. For the rest, the roots had no choice but to go down into the ground to fulfill its needs. Since the roots of your plant were superficial the rain and wind could easily fell it down. Since the roots of my plant were deeply grounded it could easily withstand this onslaught of nature.
Isn't this story similar to the way we deal with youngsters ? Sometimes we can be so possessive and over protective of them. We can end up caring for them to the extent of pampering them, not giving them their space, the facility, the opportunity and the impetus to grow by taking responsibility. On the other hand if we just leave them to themselves without proper support they may end up making wrong decisions due to lack of maturity. Caring for our children is exactly like caring for a plant. Underdoing it make the plant die and overdoing it make the plant weak. It is the right balance that will make youngsters to grow luxuriantly and bear fruits and flower in the form of maturity experience and wisdom.........