Looking through the crystal ball

I often wonder how my kids will be when they grow up.Will they think like we are thinking now or would it be radically different then? They say life goes around in a circle does that mean they will start thinking the way my parents did when they were growing up.Will the old school of thoughts come back as a fashion then yet again like the 70s fashions now.
But in the recent years the mechanical pace of life and the way the technology has taken over our lives I wonder if their quality of life will improve or actually get worse.Thinking a few years back I think the standard of living was perhaps not as good but I think the quality of life was definitely better. More breathable air,lesser cases of cancer,more social life,more trees and lesser pollution.
India has now introduced cars for as cheap as one lakh and with loans available so easily, everybody wants to own one. Now we need to space to drive these cars which means cutting down trees for more highways.More cars means more pollution.Lesser trees means lesser oxygen.We are breathing such poor quality of air.
If only we could pay attention to the things that really matter ,I think we could improve the future for our kids.
A few basic things I teach my kids from a very early age is being aware of the world. They live in a very secure world.They don't know the concept of hunger and poverty. They don't know what an orphanage is.I always take them to one when I go home or even talk to them about kids who are battling fatal diseases.
We have to teach our kids to respect life and what is most precious of all "health". With the technology taking over the world so fast they have very little chance of experiencing the quality of life we enjoyed growing up.Most of us are hyper parents.We want the child to be successful.To a large extent too.I expect my child to excel in whatever she takes on. In a way its hard to draw the line.If we cut them too much slack they will not respect what they are learning. They need to understand its serious business.We have to teach them the principle of working hard but not be workoholics.
I decided to be more open to options with respect to my kids.I appreciate art a lot more now than I ever did before. She can be an artist if she wants to be one.He could be a sportsman and make a career out of it.As long as we drive the kids to be good at what they are doing and enjoy it I think we are teaching them to be better contributors for the society tommorrow. Its hard to imagine anybody besides doctor or engineer in the family, I think we will get used to it eventually.
Being successful also means being happy at what you are doing.I often wonder what is the most important thing I have to teach my kids to be happy or to be someone that makes you fit in the society. We have doctors and engineers in every family but we don't want to commit to making singers and dancers. I want them to appreciate art. If they want to career out of it and be happy I would be happy to support them. I am sure one day they will look back and realise that they did what they enjoyed doing the most.
Today is the age of hyper parenting.We want the kids to take all sorts of classes but because we want to be able to tell people that our child does music,dance or painting. But I wonder if we know for sure they enjoy it or not.Its important for them to enjoy art to be able to appreciate it.
"Childhood is a short season." There is always a moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future walk in. We never know when that happens and what the future holds but nevertheless childhood is all about hopes and dreams and we can dream with them and look through the crystal ball hoping that the future will have more trees , fresh air,less pollution and wonderful times for everyone of our children.They are our most wonderful resource and the best hope for our future.