by Naima Manal

Created on: March 19, 2009   Last Updated: March 31, 2009

Thirty years ago was a different time to be a child. As children, we were free to play and run without the burden of training for tomorrow's responsibilities and commitments. Thirty years later, times have certainly changed. Technologies have surpassed industrialization, and with the ever-changing economical, environmental and socio-political climates, tomorrow's success for the next generation may only be for the most savvy one who adapts quickly, as in the "survival of the fittest." Though this is not the natural premise to raise children upon, parents have to race to invest competitive drives in their children in preparation for the day their children must enter the mean highway to success or the ravaging freeway to their place in society.

Defining success for our children now becomes a two-part definition. One defines success with whom they are as people, and the other defines success for what they can choose as occupations in life. The best push towards success in our children is a matter of understanding and implementing true success within ourselves as parents - an example of action. This is so that we set good examples for our children.

The most important of the two successes is the success of self, which reaches beyond material and superficial bounties. It is the attainment of contentment with whom you are and what your life's purpose must be. For that, the parent should push their child - with love and affection - to the farthest end of their path to success.

Now, as a parent, we must define or redefine true success. How about taking the emphasis away from the enormous mansion and glamorous cars, and putting it into the cultivation of the heart and soul of your child? Success and succeeding truthfully belongs to those things that cannot be taken away by a debt collector or re-possessor. Helping the children to feel, grow and learn happiness, peace, honesty and a sense of moral obligation will give them a solid foundation. This solid foundation will, in turn, equip them with independence and such qualities as honoring commitments, keeping their word, fulfilling goals, having aspirations, developing self-motivation, and wanting to achieve the highest level of any pursuit, in the pursuit of living a meaningful life. Success, in this instance, means that we want to move our children away from moral failure and into a life of honor.

As far as surviving the dynamics of society, parents may have to push the ones who are not motivated to reach for a goal. The

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