WRITING TASK 2

Write about the following topic. 

Parents often give children everything they ask for and do what they like.

Is it good for children? What are the consequences when they grow up?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

SAMPLE WRITING TASK 2

Indulging children has been a common parenting problem in many modern families. From my perspective, this practice exerts some immediate adverse impacts on children and also results in long-term consequences for them.

In the short term, it is possible that over-indulgence causes some delay to the process in which children learn important life skills. This can be seen in a variety of age groups, ranging from toddlers to teenagers. For example, many over-caring parents spoon-feed their children until they are five or six, the developmental stage in which they should have already been able to eat independently. There is also a common practice that parents assist their pre-adolescent children in taking a bath or a shower. As a result, children may fail to acquire basic personal hygiene skills at the right time.

In the long run, the consequences are even direr as over-indulged children grow up. If parents unconditionally satisfy all the needs of their children, they may have inadvertently made their children become over-dependent on other people. When these children enter adulthood, the inability to live independently can cause some difficulties for them to maintain their overall well-being, for instance, they may be unaware of what to do when they catch a fever. Furthermore, it is a norm that over-indulgent parents are lenient and do not require children to face the consequences of their misbehaviour. In general, this deprives children ofthe opportunities to learn from mistakes, which may cause their problem solving skills to be severely lacking in the future.

From the issues outlined above, one can conclude that over-indulgence may produce a number of unfavourable effects on children, including the delay in gaining crucial life skills such as self-feeding and the long-term consequence of lacking the ability to cope withproblems as adults in the future.

Useful Vocabulary, Collocations & Expressions for IELTS Writing

Parenting (adj) the raising of a child by its parents

Exert negative/adverse impact/influence on (phrase) have a bad effect on

Result in (verb) lead to

In the short term (phrase) during the period of time that is not very far into the future

Over-indulgence (n) to allow someone to do or have whatever they want

Life skills (n) skills that are needed to deal effectively with the challenges of everyday life, at school, at work and in personal relationships

Spoon-feed (phrase) 

Development stages (phrase)  theoretical milestones of child development

In the long run (phrase) during the period of time that is far into the future

Inadvertently (adv) not deliberately, and without realizing what you are doing

Lenient (adj) permissive, merciful, or tolerant

Deprive of (verb) if you deprive someone of something, you take it away from them or prevent them from having it.