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About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker questions if parental ambition for children is selfish and suggests acceptance instead.
In plain terms
Maybe we want kids to succeed as we didn't, which is wrong, so we should just accept them.
What can you take from it?
Parents should accept children for who they are rather than for their ambitions.

Where it applies

  • family dynamics
  • education

Putting it to work

  • evaluate motivations
  • celebrate unique strengths

Questions to consider

  • Where does ambition end and control begin?
  • Is it wrong to hope for your child's success?

Another view

The distinction between ambition and expectation is blurred here.

More from Orson Scott Card

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  2. Wasting our time? This is a waste of time, to live in peace and plenty with my wife and children? May I waste the rest of my life, then.

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  3. Adults [are] so strange

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