Encouragement or Enforcement?

I met a friend yesterday. She is from Thailand. She told me that this coming two weeks her children were doing nothing but playing in school because the school exam was over.

It was a stressful exam for her children, not just academic wise but language barrier too. She saw her children studying very hard for the exam and she was very proud of them. She encouraged her children that don't worry about the outcome, mum is already very happy because you are trying your best!

She is such a great mum!

In today's world, children are asked to do a lot more things compared to those days. The expectation of today's parents are a lot more higher. Many parents enforce the children to learn this and that until they have hardly time to play.

When the children scored 90 points, instead of saying "Well done!" we said:

"y u lose 10points? u should have gotten at least 9 points! English is your strong subject. Now u lose 10points, it will affect your overall grade... " blah blah blah...

or sometimes v will tell our children:

"u better spend the next 2 hours sitting here and study, don't go anywhere. if u score less than 90 points, u are going to get it from me!"

or when they scored less points, v said:

"If u listened to me before, u won't be getting this kind of marks!"

All these "enforcement" imposed on our kids, how far has it worked?

I think perhaps instead of forcing and stressing our children to study hard before the exam, perhaps it is a good idea to give them some encouragements instead.... they may not scored the best result, but they are definitely performing at their best form!