One question keeps gnawing at me: “What do I need to do to make sure that my children succeed in life, that they occupy their niche? New trends in pedagogy, trainings, seminars. How solid is all this, and whether it makes sense? I wondered about all this, knowing the story of my grandmother’s family.
My great-grandmother was left alone with six children during the war (one of them was my grandmother). Five girls and the last boy was born, and my great-grandfather was just called up for the war (although he had a heart condition). He learned from the front that at last a son was born (although he loved his girls very much), and a month later he died at the front from heart failure.
Great-grandmother and her children lived very poor, in a word, they survived. That is why I have a question: “How could these children, who grew up in poverty, without parental supervision, one may say, resented by the fate, managed to become self-confident, purposeful, to achieve a good position in the society, to build a career? How?
My grandmother graduated from a pedagogical school and a pedagogical university, worked as a kindergarten principal and then in the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic, then as a personnel manager of a construction organization. She married the head of the district (then a deputy of the State Council of the Republic). Her sister became a famous obstetrician in the republic and married a teacher (then an honored teacher of the republic, candidate for master of sports). Another sister became a chemist, holding a leading post at the Himprom enterprise. Another sister became a wonderful teacher (she married the head of the traffic police of the region). And the youngest brother, who never even saw his father, became a military builder, from his youth he was in charge of many federal projects, and closer to his retirement he was transferred to Moscow to manage the municipal construction enterprise.
How is this possible? We are all being told from all sides that in order to develop children’s leadership qualities, purposefulness, and success, the parents themselves have to try a lot, they need “this” and “that”, and to choose the right methods of education, and not to break their psyche, etc. And speaking of education, how much you need to “cram” into the brain of a child so that he could succeed in life professionally.
What was the secret of my great-grandmother’s upbringing? What was she able to give her children that they were successful in life? I rack my brains all the time. Oh yes, as an angle into the biography – my great-grandmother was a woman of extremely decent, modest, hardworking, lived to 97 years in the respect and esteem of her children.
