How much influence do parents have in a child's future motivation to study/work?

[Cortina]

Do you subscribe to the 'can take a horse to water but can't make it drink' philosophy or otherwise?

Friends of mine, whose children have done well, made sure they got into a routine of study early on. It's seems to have paid dividends going forward.

Many of us have young children here and I am wondering what you can usefully do to encourage good study habits and diligence for the future? If anything?

will read this later but I really think the parents' natural attitude is very important - kids look up to their parents when they're young and tend to copy their views, this IMO is more important than what you get your children used to doing WRT homework etc.

my parents never put undue pressure on me, I learnt to motivate myself from a young age and enjoy learning and achievement. their attitude really influenced me without them telling me what to do IYSWIM? they just really value learning, head always in a book etc, that helped me love school I think. I really am grateful for this.

same with smoking actually, they have never ever said "you must not smoke" or similar, but I knew how they felt about it and I just sort of took in their view (dad never even tried it, neither have I)

I guess it may depend on the personality of the child though, as to how likely they are to follow their parents?

I believe that you can lead by example by continuing to learn new things yourself, to read and to encourage children to tell you the things that they have learnt, making them want to learn more. I also think it is important to enforce the 'try and try again priniple'.

My DM did not feel good about education and never really encouraged us but both my DPs carried on learning in adulthood, taking exams, learning languages and this has led to an in built need to learn in us kids without any pressure.

The more pressure, the child is under, the more they will either fail on purpose or never be completely happy with their performance even if they get a B. Neither is ideal for their future happiness. It is a difficult balancing act and I hope that I can try and do my best without being too pushy.