别让爱成为孩子的负担

There are two great defining features of child-rearing today. First, children are now praised to an unprecedented degree. As Dorothy Parker once joked, American children aren’t raised; they are incited. They are given food, shelter and applause. That’s a thousand times more true today. Children are incessantly told how special they are.

如今的育儿有两大关键特征。第一，现在的孩子得到空前多的夸赞。桃乐丝·帕克(Dorothy Parker)曾经开玩笑说，美国的孩子不是抚养大的，是激励大的。他们得到了饮食、庇护与喝彩。这话在今天更是无比正确。人们不断对孩子说他们如何如何特别。
别让爱成为孩子的负担

The second defining feature is that children are honed to an unprecedented degree. The meritocracy is more competitive than ever before. Parents are more anxious about their kids getting into good colleges and onto good career paths. Parents spend much more time than in past generations investing in their children’s skills and résumés and driving them to practices and rehearsals.

第二个关键特征是孩子受到了前所未有的锻造磨砺。在精英体制下，竞争空前激烈。父母比以往更担心孩子能否进入优秀大学，踏上职场坦途。比起以前几代人，现在的父母会花更多的时间对孩子的技能和履历进行投入，开车送他们去训练和排练。
These two great trends — greater praise and greater honing — combine in intense ways. Children are bathed in love, but it is often directional love. Parents shower their kids with affection, but it is meritocratic affection. It is intermingled with the desire to help their children achieve worldly success.
这两大倾向——更多的夸赞和更多的磨砺——是紧密结合的。孩子沉溺在爱中，但那爱是有指向的。父母向孩子倾注无限的感情，但那是精英至上的感情。其中掺杂着帮助孩子取得世俗成功的欲望。
Very frequently it is manipulative. Parents unconsciously shape their smiles and frowns to steer their children toward behavior they think will lead to achievement. Parents glow with extra fervor when their child studies hard, practices hard, wins first place, gets into a prestigious college.
而这时常会表现为操纵欲。父母无意中用他们的微笑和皱眉作了向导，让孩子往他们认为可以通往成功的行为发展。孩子努力学习、训练、得第一名、进入名牌大学，会让父母心中充满欣喜。

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