After entering one's teens, people care more about their friends than before. And many of them feel more comfortable and intimate with their friends. However, I believe that parents' influence on one's life is bigger than that of one's friends'. That's because friends do not discipline and parents provide much more love than friends.
To begin with, parents are usually the only authority figures to children. That is, when children do something unfavorable, most of their friends just blame and condemn them behind. But parents can discipline and punish them to teach their behavior is wrong. For instance, when I was a elementary student, I cheated on final exam for the first and last time. I really wanted to get good grades which led to my false decision. Unfortunately, my best friend saw it and told about it to everyone in my class. I became lonely in my class and I felt somewhat betrayed by her behavior. Finally my teacher heard about it and she told it to my parents. My parents were very angry and upset. However, they didn't turned their back from me. Instead, they let me do all the dishes for a month and forgave me. I became aware that cheating is something that should be criticised and shouldn't be done.
In addition, parents provide their children with unconditional and undying love. They are willing to die and sacrifice anything for their kids. Of course, there are some abusive parents and dysfunctional families, but they are just few. My experience shows this well. When I was 15 years old, I got a motorcycle accident and my left leg had broken up. I had to stay in a hospital for two months, but no one was able to look after me for that long period. So, my mother quit her job that she loved so much and did enthusiastically, to take care of me. As I cannot forget how devoted and sacrificing she was, I not only try to make my parents happy but also respect my friends' parents.
On the whole, parents are the most powerful effect on children, since they can discipline them and show amazing love. I strongly believe impacts of friends are not comparable to those of parents. As someone said, parents are always on their children's side, even though they commit a murder.
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