Kids excelling academically and athletically makes parents proud, but is that what your child wants? We, as parents, often neglect to notice the child's liking. We always believe that our child loves what we love, but we can be so so wrong. Our child is a totally different personality. He /she has their own mind and own heart. We cannot forcefully make him /her study or work according to our desires and if we do so it may have a fairly bad impact on the child's little brain leaving irreparable consequences.
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Parents, specially Indians, believe that there is no life for a child who doesn't pursue engineering or medicine. I remember, when I was a kid, my parents often fed my little brain with hopes of taking up medicine, but as my grades started falling, my parents gave up on me telling friends and relatives about how lucky they were to give birth to me as a girl because they can at least get me married. They were thankful that I was a girl and my brother who was good at studies was a boy, for he could earn and look after his family and was not a liability to his parents unlike me. This surely had a bad impact on my little brain. I started believing that yes, I am not worthy, all I can do is get married and do household chores. I can never earn a lively hood and would always need to be supported by my husband. I grew up believing that and that's what happened with my life.
I believe my parents failed at understanding my potential. If they would have motivated me or took time to understand my interest I would have done better. I don't say that it's too late in life now, but I still have a lot of responsibilities towards my kids before I could take a break from parenting and pursuing my hobby.
To be very frank, I still don't know what I am good at. The impact that my parents constant saying of how unworthy I am, is still there and my husband and my mother in law have been constantly fuelling it further.
I may not be a academic scholar or a athletic personality, but I believe every individual is born with some talent which is the responsibility of teachers and parents to notice and give it a boost.
Never force your child to do what you want because you would later on repent for what you did just like Biwadeep's father. Biswadeep was a promising national level table tennis champion. He was just 14 years old when he scummbled to a cardiac arrest while he was practicing for his game. The young boy was not interested to practice, but his father forced him to do so. Sources reported that the young boy was tortured if he lost his game. May be the stress to win the game was too much for the little boy to handle.
Always support your kids to pursue what they like. You never know, they may excel in their field and shine. Your kids need your support and motivation. Ask them what they would want to do in life and show them the right way to shape their career. Don't force your choice of career on them, it would be as bad a stuffing the food that you hate in your own mouth.