My father's life-long ambition was that his 5 sons would have what he was unable to get: a college education.
He never went into the dreary routine that we had life so much better than he had it, since he had to quit school when he was 11 to go to work full time to help the family make ends meet.
He did not know it, but he gave us something we could never learn in college--the knowledge that life is not easy and that the time to develop the strength to meet its challenges is during your younger years,
I do not mean to suggest that it is good to make life hard for your children. But if you make it too easy, their inevitable realization as adults that life is a continuing struggle may find them unprepared for it.
