Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Over-scheduling our kids

We have so many options available today. You can book a holiday and be half way around the world tomorrow. You can sign up for soccer, basketball, softball, tennis, golf, hockey and football. You can take a class in pottery, basket weaving, gardening, movie making, what-have-you. And you can do all this while still being nine years old. That's great.

What's not as great is when I try to squeeze these things into my child's week. Why do I have to live this way? Why does my child? What would happen if I spent as much time with them as I allow others to? What would happen if we let them play? What would happen if we didn't have to have so much control over their lives? What would happen if we didn't demand a Triple A coach for our six year old? What would happen if we had a night off?

Think about what you missed in your childhood. Are you forcing it on your child now? Just a thought, but the Renaissance Man doesn't exist in a four year old's body. Likely you do not have a world class ballet-dancing, guitar-playing, golf-pro doctor growing up in your home. There may be a child though.

For further reading, enter the free book giveaway and ask for Dr Leman's Its Your Kid, Not a Gerbil!

2 comments:

Shannon Lawrence said...

This is so true and important to remember. We sort of got ourselves into that trap and are remedying it right now. I do think we tend to put our kids in activities we wanted to do as kids. And we sometimes feel like we need to keep them active, and that sports is the way to do that. But, as we enjoyed on Sunday, you can play with your kids, get them outdoors, and get them that great physical activity and air without it being an organized sport. Family time is the most important time.

Shannon at The Warrior Muse, co-host of the 2012 #atozchallenge! Twitter: @AprilA2Z

Christine said...

It's nice to hear that it's *okay* not to involve my kids in everything. Sometimes I feel inferior to all the moms who schedule their kids for something every night.

(What, your kid's are not playing soccer, and learning the violin, and in Boy Scouts, and a debate club?) I have to keep telling myself that my kids will be fine.

Thanks for visiting my blog, by the way. A to Z seems like a great way to find blogs I probably would never have come across otherwise. It's been fun already, and we haven't even started!