King Richard and Parental Encouragement
The moral case for encouraging your children to work harder.
Most parents want their children to succeed.
Pretty much from the moment they become parents, it's one of the driving forces behind their motivations for doing things. To find a way for their children to make something of themselves as early and often as possible. In doing so, parents will obsess over the smallest things, whether it's how long it takes their children to start walking or speaking or begin learning all kinds of subjects. Every child is evaluated for what they're achieving and their parents hope to see something emerge on which they can encourage them to dedicate their lives to. If something does emerge, parents will push their kids to make the child see how important this talent is for their future success.
The problem with such a way of thinking is often times when their parents encourage them towards a particular end, children will rebel. As a way of defying their parents, children will choose something their parents don't want just to feel as though they have some choice in the matter. Being able to encourage your child therefore is a balancing act of sorts. You want to encourage your children enough that they will see the benefits of what you want them to do, but not so much that they will end up rebelling. Among all the parts of parenting which is obviously difficult, this is perhaps the hardest thing to do. It preoccupies parents to endless degrees, almost as much as the idea that their children won't succeed at all.
One could even argue that this is the primary tension between children and their parents as they grow up. At least as long as children have parents who can actually do what they're supposed to do. If they don't, children will often look for someone that can play the role of the encouraging parent. Obviously children need this type of reinforcement even if they don't get it from a parent. People just can't seem to live without the possibility of having someone who raised them give them the validation they apparently crave. Sometimes that encouragement can be nice and subtle, whereas other times it can be up front and in your face. Many parents and potential parents tend to choose one kind of encouragement and swear by it to other parents. It's the source of endless debate which version allows children to succeed to varying degrees.
King Richard is in many ways about the effect that parental encouragement can have on the way children turn out in the end. Richard Williams, as played by Will Smith, is the parent of some of the most successful children in sports history. What he did obviously had a positive effect on Serena and Venus, given how they ended up. Or at least it would appear that way. Some people would dispute the way in which Richard treated the people around his family. He wasn't the nicest person in the world. He did a lot of things people feel were way beyond what any reasonable person would want for their own children. But of course, the results are pretty much undeniable.
Do yourself a favour and explore the way in which parents encourage their children by checking out King Richard when you can.
Check out King Richard on Apple, as well as Crave and Hulu.