Daily Meditation: Thursday, March 19, 2026

Parents - filled with love, but unyielding to the whims of their children

03/19/2026

Parents must never give in to their children’s whims. They should be full of love and tenderness, but when needs be, they must also be inflexible. When they tell their child to do something, for example, they must make sure that it obeys. Many mothers become soft-hearted when their child cries, and end up giving in to its wants, even if they are unreasonable. This is a stupid form of leniency, for children who are used to getting their way later grow up to be capricious, violent and unscrupulous adults. A mother must remain calm and gentle. She must not become angry or strike her child, but she must be as uncompromising as nature, which remains unyielding in the face of human suffering. If a child sticks its finger into the fire or onto ice, the laws of heat and cold are not changed for their sake. Nature looks on unmoved by their experience, and this is why children learn to respect it. A mother represents nature to her child: if she fails to represent it correctly, the child will never learn that some boundaries cannot be crossed, and the damage will be done. It is often because of their mother’s weakness that some children turn into complete scoundrels later on in life.