Do kids in Australia not need to work hard? That's what some migrant groups online say: life here is slow and easy, and children just run around on big lawns. From what I see in Brisbane, it isn't true. The kids who do well in sport or music usually chose it themselves, love it, and practise seven days a week. Australian parents don't force them, but they do encourage them, and they don't let them quit at the first hard moment.
I recorded this as a Cantonese voice note, with English subtitles on screen.
Is Australia really "no effort" for kids?
No. It's easy to believe when you only see the weekend. Yesterday I went to a kids' sports open day, and lately I've been to a few music concerts for friends' kids too. What you see on those days is the result. What you don't see is the training behind it.
Online, I keep reading the same story: Australia is relaxed, children grow up free, and only Chinese families push their kids hard. Honestly, that isn't what I see. Pushing for results is not something only Chinese families do.
Why do Australian kids train so hard?
Because many of them chose it. Most of the kids who stand out here picked their own sport or their own instrument, and they do it because they love it.
That matters, because you can't force it. Ask a child to run laps on the oval every day, seven days a week, and if they don't love running, it won't happen. But when they do love it, seven days of practice is normal. They're out there every day chasing it.
So the rule is the same here as anywhere. I tell my own kids this: if you don't put in the work, you won't achieve anything. Many people think you can succeed in Australia without trying. It's hard.
Do Western parents push their kids?
They encourage, which is different from forcing. Many parents I see will get their child to try something, a sport, an instrument, an activity. They don't hold on to the child and drag them through it.
But they also don't say, "You don't like it? Fine, stop." What I hear a lot is, "Hey, give it a go. Don't give up so fast." That small push to keep going a bit longer is easy to miss if you only look at the relaxed lifestyle.
Is parenting a choice between 0 and 1?
No, and this is the part I want people to remember. Between zero and one is not maths. It isn't binary.
People talk as if Hong Kong and Asia are a "1": you must practise, and if you don't, there are consequences. Then Australia is the "0": parents don't care at all and let kids give up. But between zero and one there is a huge space. There's 0.02, there's 0.3, there's everything in between.
If I had to put a number on it, Australia is around 0.5. Parents encourage. They don't grab you and make you do it.
I wrote about the same idea with friendships in Right and Wrong Isn't 0 or 1. It turns out it applies to raising kids too.
Do people keep it up as adults?
Many do. Lots of people I know have their own music. They love the violin, they love the cello.
Some of my colleagues have played the same instrument since they were small. I didn't ask their ages, but they're in their twenties or thirties now, and they still play, still perform, still have their own sound. A few of them love it so much that their day job is just the job. Music is their real side career.
Should we judge other parents online?
I don't think so. In online migrant groups, many parents say, "I just want my kids not to work so hard. They play the piano every day because they love it."
Maybe that's exactly how it is. Maybe it isn't. I'm not their family and I don't know them. I only see their posts, and I can't tell what's real.
So my reminder, to myself as much as anyone: don't keep posting negative comments or stirring people up. Their words were probably aimed at someone else anyway. I'm not famous enough for them to be talking about me.
What I tell my own kids
Wherever you live, if you want to succeed at something, you have to work for it. Australia doesn't change that. What Australia does well is the middle: find something you love, get encouraged to stick with it, and then do the work because you want to.
If you're a migrant parent here, you might also like my essay on raising kids in Brisbane as first-generation migrants. And for kids who like a small daily practice habit, the free times tables game on this site works well in ten minutes a day.
Where does your family sit: 0, 0.5 or 1? I'd really like to hear.
Based on my Cantonese voice note recorded in Brisbane on 9 November 2026. This is a personal reflection, not research. The images were made locally with Qwen Image 2.1 for the video, and AI helped me edit the English.
