Originally Posted by Val
This can be a hard pill to swallow for some people when the child isn't who they want him to be and can create problems for the kid (see The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom for examples). When people put pressure on someone to be different than s/he is, there can be hurtful consequences.

Part of this comes from seeing a child as a tabula rasa entity.

The idea that as the parent, it's your job to mold the child into something that's appropriate to your (meaning the parent's) purposes and goals.