I’ve seen several people my age speak about how they want their parents to retire early and that they’re doing all the hard work for their parents so they don’t have to work any more. Here is why I tend to disagree with this mentality..

We all have parents or influential role models. All of our parents are obviously different from one another. I’ll start with mine.

Mum and Dad came to the UK in the 1980’s from Ibadan, Nigeria – purely with the only aim and plans to build another life in completely different surroundings, to build a better life, better income, and family.

They both worked several late nights, early mornings, but never failed to celebrate every single birthday of mine, and my 5 elder brothers. My brothers and I have all grown up now, working jobs, earning a living, and generally becoming more independent.

All my parents ever taught my brothers and I were to work hard, save, follow God, enjoy life, and be clever with the big choices we make.

Of course – when I start earning larger amounts of money, my parents will definitely benefit from that widely – but doing this isn’t the only way to show how grateful I am to have them as parents.

Truth of the matter is, no matter how hard we work, the work our parents did for us will never amount to what we can give them back. Not all of our focus and relationship with our parents should be based on ‘repaying then’, sometimes just let your parents be what they wouldn’t want to be anything else but – your parents!

Work hard for you, too.

At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child’s success is the positive involvement of parents.

                                                                                                  – Jane D. Hull