Jordan Peterson's viral, frank parenting advice: 'Don't protect your children ... Do the opposite

A video featuring frank — but poignant — parenting advice from controversial college psychology professor and best-selling author Dr. Jordan Peterson has gone viral, hitting more than 18 million views since last week.

What's in the video?

Peterson spoke with Lewis Howes for a wide-ranging interview in which the Canadian professor discussed parenting.

In the video, Peterson says, "When you love someone, you love them not only despite their fragility, but also because of it."

"They wouldn't be who they were if they weren't fragile and limited in their particular way. When you have a sick kid, it's like 'Oh, my God, how could the world be constituted so that a child can unfairly suffer in this manner?" Peterson continues.

"You can't have them being vulnerable and cute and interesting and small and needing care, but striving to develop and grow without them also being prone to pain and destruction and vulnerability," he adds.

"And then what do you do?" he asks. "Teach them to be strong. That's what you do. You don't get rid of the vulnerability; you teach them to be strong."

"You don't protect your children," Peterson adds. "In fact, you do the opposite. You expose them to the world as much as you possibly can. You make them strong. That's the best antidote to their vulnerability."

Peterson goes on to concur with the first truth in Buddhism, that "life is suffering," and offers a fresh and honest perspective on reality and endurance.

"It's worse than that because it's suffering contaminated by malevolence," Peterson explains. "The optimistic part is that you are so damn tough you could actually not only deal with that, you can improve it."

"We're stronger than things are terrible," he later adds.

You can listen to Peterson's remarks in their entirety in the video below.

Why is Peterson considered so 'controversial,' anyway?

Many people — mainly on the left — consider Peterson to be controversial because of his traditionalist and fundamentalist views on gender equality, identity, feminism, and masculinity.

In May, The New York Times wrote about Peterson and called him the "Custodian of the Patriarchy."

Peterson also believes that white privilege is a social construct, and that it doesn't actually exist, and is skeptical of the #MeToo movement's motives and endgame.