Happiness is not About Success

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To all new mums, young people starting out at university or in the work world

I am about to tell you something that goes against all that your education has taught you to think and do. Since preschool, adults have pushed you to excel, to rise above your peers. My generation has groomed you for success, to get into the best universities and snatch the most prized careers. Well, it is nice to have confidence, to fulfil your dreams and have a sense of satisfaction in your chosen field of work but that will not make you happy.

Just take a look at the generation that has gone before you. The all to common mid-life crisis is a testament to the failure of a life focused on career advancement to the exclusion of family. Men and women bemoan the fact that they did not have time for nurturing and loving their spouse or children. All to often family life crumbles to ashes, sacrificed on the altar of success. As for childcare, society relegates it to women who are often treated as second class citizens.

I want to yell out as loudly as I can that raising children is definitely not a default chore for women who were not successful in the world of business, power and wealth.

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