Moms and Dads

5 Parenting Lessons To Learn From The Squid Game

by Kevyn Gohu
October 6, 2021

The latest Battle Royale K-Drama, the Squid Game, has parenting lessons to offer even with the morbid setting.

We’ve heard about or watched with morbid fascination the latest Battle Royale K-Drama, Squid Game, wondering — what on earth does it have to offer? It’s a game of survival where people die and do all sorts of things to survive, all for the entertainment of the rich who have nothing to spend their money on. Many of the characters in Squid Game each fight for the money but need it for different reasons. So, what can we learn from the morbid show? Here are a few realizations we’ve found after watching it.

Warning: For those who didn’t watch, there might be spoilers! You’ve been warned.

1. Not everything has a deeper meaning.

Whenever something happens, we look for a deeper meaning behind it. Like when COVID-19 cases shoot up again or our kids get bad grades in Homeschool, we wonder if it’s because we’re not doing enough or if God’s punishing us. But what if there is no deeper meaning behind it? Just like how Il-Nam and In-Ho started the Squid Game out of sheer boredom, certain things happen because they do. It follows the logic behind Occam’s Razor: the simplest explanation’s probably the best one. Like if our kids get bad grades in homeschool, maybe it just wasn’t up to par and they’ll just get it next time.

2. We tell our kids money isn’t everything yet sometimes, we act the opposite

Despite us hearing it repeatedly, it’s still hard to neglect the possible millions which could easily solve anyone’s problems. We sometimes pass this idea of how money can solve everything to our kids and they too begin chasing jobs that offer big but are mentally and physically stressful. We can start off by helping them be less grade-conscious. By looking less at the numbers and more at where it went wrong, we can teach them that there’s always something beyond the numbers or in some cases — money.

3. Don’t rush your child

We’re sometimes scared that our kids will be left behind. If they’re not reading or speaking full sentences at a certain age, we’re quick to assume that there’s something wrong with them. But being late isn’t always a bad thing. We can see that in the Squid Game’s fifth round with the glass panels when people were desperate to get a number. It turns out, being the first is actually the worst here because he had no clues to tell him which ones were the trick panels. So, let the kids take their time. Maybe they’re seeing something we’re not.

4. Teach your kids to be good because they’re capable and choose to do so.

When teaching our kids morals, it’s usually accompanied by religion or the usual God punishing those who are evil. But for many religious orders, that then makes doing good more of an obligation which makes the deed lose its sincerity. In the last game between Gi-Hun and Il-Nam, they play one more game to see if humanity has any innate goodness in them. Il-Nam dies but not before he loses when someone helps the drunk man on the street without any persuasion, snapping Gi-Hun out of his traumatized stupor to fulfill the promises of those who died in the Squid Game.

5. It’s never too late to reconnect with your kids

Gi-Hun really messed up when he gambled away all the money his mother gave him, leaving him to treat his daughter to a hotdog for her birthday. But we see later on as the show progresses, we see that Gi-Hun attempts to reconnect with his daughter after fulfilling each of the dead’s requests. We often think that because our kids are older, it’s a lot more difficult to bond with them. But sometimes, all it takes is a step forward and an open mind to begin a new relationship.

Squid Game: A morbid wholesomeness

Squid Game shows a lot of us what we’ve been taught about the world. That, it’s a dog-eat-dog and survival for the fittest. But we see that it’s possible to unlearn or change our attitude towards it. As adults, we may have been embittered but as parents, it’s our duty to make the world we live in a better place by showing that survival doesn’t mean dragging people down so that our kids can learn empathy to love and care for others beyond themselves.