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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No. I want them to be happy. I don't care what that looks like. That being said...will being destitute make them happy? Or in a job they hate?[b] I want them to understand that happiness often means setting goals and working hard to achieve them.[/b] If that goal is working at a hair salon or getting an MD doesn't matter to me.[/quote]

This is the only comment in the entire thread that uses the word WORK.

Here's my question: at what age and how do you teach your kids to work hard towards their goals? 
I don't see hard work being valued in raising kids. I get the impression that the parents of my kids' peers don't think it's worth pushing yet - 8 and 10 years old. Will those values come out in parents once kids hit middle school? Is hard work not cool?[/quote]

I'm not sure it's ever too early to start teaching them that...  It's hard work learning to walk, to talk, to write, to read... Pointing out their progress at each step I think instills in them the idea that they can do hard things.

For example, I show my daughter old sheets from when she was first learning to write letters (now she writes words) - she finds it super funny to see how "badly" she wrote back then, but, more importantly, it gives her energy to continue *now* with whatever hard word she's struggling with... I also show her videos of when she first started riding her bike (all the wobbles and falls), when she first learned "mary had a little lamb" on the piano, etc.

I think the tough part is teaching them to work hard, but [b]smart[/b]. No kid wants to do tedious rote work if there is an easier way, nor should they. So I try to reward my daughter for finding the easier way, but I also point out that sometimes you just gotta buckle down and do the hard work. For example, she wishes she had a robot to do her laundry. Great idea kiddo, but you gotta build the robot first :)

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