Sometimes parents are sure about the path that their kids must take, and they let the kids know it. When we do this, we often set our kids up for failure. Trying to help those we love most in the world to succeed, we actually ferment rebellion in them or doom them to failure. Take a look at your household and see if any of the following situations apply.

Popularity

A friend once told me of an encounter with the man who was screaming at his 14-year old, unaware that she was just five feet away and heard everything. My friend was too polite to tell him that, if we teach our children over and over again that they are substandard, we will get results the very opposite from those we want. Indeed, we will sap our child’s will, and it’ll be tough for them ever to escape the screaming voice inside their head.

In this situation, it turned out this gentleman himself had been a big shot in high school. Though his son was kind, respectful, and a very good student, he was not in the super popular in-crowd, and the dad was afraid he would miss out on the fun he himself had had.

Athletic

I don’t know any pressure that is so overwhelming in school. If you aren’t good at football or basketball or soccer, you can be the subject of teasing, even harassment. Naturally, parents and coaches want the child to succeed in sports. Sports can even be the door that opens to scholarships and a bright career future.

I remember the day when the soccer scouts, seeing my son in the city tryouts, tried to get him on a professional team. He was 12 and very tall. Being on this team meant large crowds and glory; but it also meant practicing every afternoon for three hours and traveling to matches three weekends a month. More than that, it meant playing aggressively, even sometimes violently—in other words, it meant giving up the rest of childhood. A lot of pressure was applied to get this boy who was still wandering in the hills searching for finches and orioles to go for broke in sports; but he loved soccer only for enjoyment, not for competition. Unwilling to give up fun for glory, he told the coaches and scouts to look somewhere else for the next Pele.

Talent

If the parent spies an area where their boy or girl shows great promise, sometimes they won’t let them forget about it. An extreme example of this takes place in the movie “The Red Violin,” where the boy Kaspar, who has a heart ailment, is recognized as a child violin prodigy and forced to perform by his foster father—whose own fame will be made if the boy succeeds. When his chance to perform before the king finally comes, Kaspar begins his outstanding violin playing and promptly falls over, dead from a heart attack. This merely dramatizes what we all know: talented children, endlessly pressured by their parents, may seem quite strong and self-assured; but within them, the natural urge to have fun and play is being squashed. They substitute praise from the outside for their deepest feelings and needs, and something quintessentially human in them is snuffed out.