Speaking with a neighbor the other day, I envied news of his beach home in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Until, that is, he confessed with a sigh, “Most summers we find it difficult to go.” The reason? His children’s ridiculously complicated schedules. Turns out his daughters, neither yet 10 years of age, were heavily booked in a myriad of activities no doubt aimed at their mental and physical development.

This lifestyle has become commonplace across the country as parents transfer their own manic, calendar-driven lifestyles to their children. Gone, it seems, are the days when kids whiled away their summers tramping through the woods and creeks, building forts, biking all over creation, and otherwise discovering the world around them. The lives of many of today’s children are as over-schedulded as that of their parents (often the two being intertwined).

To what end? For many parents, it’s to provide their children with that “competitive edge,” meaning to give them the best shot at landing the college placement of their (which is to say, their parents’) dreams. Music, athletics, academics, arts, and so much more are packed into the lives of children as a means of providing the building blocks to “well-rounded” adulthood. Which is interesting given how few of those well-intentioned parents are themselves well-rounded.

What those parents are really doing, according to more than a few studies, is creating hyperactive, exhausted, and ultimately depressed children from whom the very spirit of childhood is being drained. [click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }