One young academically excellent person went to apply for a managerial position in a big company.
He passed the first interview; the director did the last interview and made the final decision. The director discovered from the CV, that the youth's academic result is excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research - never was there a year he did not score. The director asked, "Did you obtain any scholarship in school?" and the youth answered "None".
The director asked, "Was it your father who paid for your school fees?"
The youth answered, "My father passed away when I was one-year-old. It was my mother who paid for my school fees."
The director asked, "Where did your mother work?"
The youth answered, "My mother worked as a washer-woman."
The director requested the youth to show him his hands. The youth showed a pair of hands that were smooth and perfect to the director.
The director asked, "Did you ever help your mother wash the clothes before?"
The youth answered, "Never! My mother always wanted me to study and read more books. Furthermore, my mother can wash clothes faster than me."
The director said, "I have a request, when you go back today, go and help to clean your mother's hands, and then see me tomorrow morning."
The youth felt that as the chance of landing the job was high, when he went back, he happily wanted to clean his mother's hands. His mother felt strange. She was happy but with trepidation, she showed her hands to the youth.
The youth cleaned his mother's hands slowly, his tears flowing as he did that. It was the first time he saw his mother's hands so wrinkled, and there are so many scars in her hands. Some wounds were still raw and incurred pain so intense that his mother's body shuddered when cleaned with water.
This is the first time the youth realized and experienced that it was this pair of hands that washed the clothes every day to earn for him the school fees. The scars in the mother's hands were the price that the mother paid for his graduation and academic excellence and probably his future. After finishing the cleaning of his mother's hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother.
Next morning, the youth went to the director's office.
The director noticed the redness in the youth's eye, asked, "Can you tell what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?"
The youth answered, "I cleaned my mother's hand, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes"
The director asked, "Please tell me how you felt."
The youth said:
"Number 1, I learnt what is appreciation. Without my mother, there would not be the successful me today.
Number 2, I learnt how to work together with my mother. Only then could I understand how difficult and tough the job was.
Number 3, I learnt the importance and value of family relationship."
The director said, "This is what I am looking for. I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who understands the suffering of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life to be my manager. You are hired."
Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates. Every employee worked diligently and as a team, the company's results improved tremendously.
MORAL:
A child who had been protected and habitually given whatever he wanted will develop an "entitlement mentality" and will always put himself first. He will be ignorant of his parents' efforts. When he starts working, he will assume that everybody must listen to him, and when he becomes a manager, he would never know how his employees suffer and will always blame others for anything that goes wrong.
For such people, he may achieve good results and may be successful for a while, but will never realize it is team effort that resulted in the achievements. He will be self-centered and always be wanting more for himself. If we are this kind of protective parents, are we loving our children or destroying them?
You can let your children live in a big house, eat good food, learn piano, watch a big-screen TV, etc., but when you are mowing the grass, please let them experience it. After a meal, let them wash their own plates and bowls together with their brothers and sisters. It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love them in the right way. You want them to understand, no matter how rich their parents are, one day it is their own efforts that will matter - especially to their own children.
The most important thing is that your children learn how to appreciate the efforts, experience the difficulty and learn the ability to work with others to get things done.
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