Child is Father of the Man

Once you turn fifty, somehow the focus of your immediate family and friends shifts to your children. Nobody seems to be bothered whether you’re a vice-president or a senior vice-president. They all want to know the status of your children. If you have a decent reply [engineering, medicine, studying abroad,….], you are admired for good parenting. Otherwise, you become an object of pity and hence a source of sadistic pleasure for the gathering.
I know of some friends who have dropped out of social get-togethers dreading this uncomfortable probe.
“The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents, and the second half by our children”-Clarence Darrow