The entire line is:

> 私の子よ…精々足掻け

Is it saying to "Struggle at most"? If it is, what would be a more natural way
to say it?
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2020-04-09T19:42:59.100
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2020-04-09T22:46:35.240
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question
meaning phrases
What does 精々足掻け mean?
Originally, 「精々」 just meant "to the best of one's ability", "as best as one
can", etc., and in imperative (and similar) constructions could be used as
sincere encouragement. It's still used in this manner sometimes, often by
people who are rather along in years.

But somewhere along the way, it picked up a sarcastic, scornful, condescending
connotation implying the speaker's doubt that the best effort of the person in
question, in the action denoted by the accompanying verb, doesn't or won't
amount to much, or simply the speaker's contempt for the action itself.

(There's also the "at best/most" sense, but that doesn't fit too well in this
context.)

Here's NHK's little treatment of this duality:
<https://www.nhk.or.jp/bunken/research/kotoba/20150601_3.html>

It's hard to know for certain which use the quote at hand represents, but my
money's on the sarcastic one, in which case I'd say it means something like:

> Struggle, my child, whatever good that does.
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answer