![]() ![]() ![]() The taking away of recess and art class to make time for test prep. It’s the over-scheduling and the “Rated M for Mature” world that I think kids deserve to be shielded from. I’m a big fan of chores, reasonably high expectations, and community involvement, and I think those aspects of maturity are healthy for kids to get familiar with early and often. To be clear, I’m not saying that kids shouldn’t have any cares or responsibilities. Add heaps of homework at earlier and earlier ages, plus the lure of screen time, plus parental fears of sending children to explore outside (either because of the fear of child molesters or nosy neighbors who will call CPS), and we’re left with kids who are missing out on the educational and emotional benefits of free, active, imaginative play. ![]() And while organized sports or other extracurriculars can be highly beneficial, they also consume a lot of a child’s time. It’s no secret that we live in an era of scheduled activities and increasingly competitive everything. Most of the time, the only people we run into at such places are parents with babies and toddlers. But it’s not just the trickle down of adult media and pop culture that concerns me.įor years, I’ve been surprised by how few school-aged children we see in parks or forest preserves during non-school hours. Television programming purportedly aimed at teens is more often consumed by tween-and-younger audiences. Clothes, games, and media are marketed to tweens with an eye to making them into mini-adult consumers. The quintessential hallmarks of childhood–play, imagination, innocence-are fleeting in a society simultaneously obsessed with reality TV banality and academic achievement. They will have the rest of their lives to be grown-ups-I see no reason to rush any of it.īut my daughters’ reluctance to grow up feels like a stark contrast with the dominant culture, where children are pushed by the media, their peers, and sometimes even their parents, to grow up faster than they should. I’d much rather my kids hold onto childhood than hurry into adolescence or adulthood. And as much as I dislike seeing my children unhappy, I’m glad. ![]()
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