Rules and Routines: Are We Over-Programming Our Children?

On My Yahoo! page, I chose a number of comics and topics to appear on the front page. This morning, I found an interesting article about whether parents are scheduling too much for their children.
I have had some discussions with parents who have older children (than us) and have found that sports, in particular, take a lot more time than they did when I was a kid. Part of the problem is that when people live in the suburbs, they have to drive everywhere, and thus have to drive their kids to all games and practices, and while having your entire family their for every practice is a good thing on one hand, being forced to be there every day takes its toll on the family.
I hadn't considered the level of detail that the article talks about. I have heard of routines on this level for autistic kids or adults with Alzheimer's, but not for "normal" kids.
Posted by Jon Daley on February 7, 2005, 8:13 am | Read 8430 times
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Now that is bizarre. (The article, that is.) No kids I've ever known have had their lives scheduled like that. More often, the error is in the other direction: children whose lives have very little of the comforting consistency of routine. The regimentation described in the article is something I've decried in schools and other institutions; certainly it would be even worse in the home.
Posted by SursumCorda on February 7, 2005, 10:45 am
The over-scheduling situation is another problem, and it is not limited to sports. When our children were at that stage, we found the primary difficulty to be that each activity wanted to take over ALL of their lives (and ours). Intense practices, competitions, fund-raisers, parental committees -- all make it difficult for a child (let alone a family of many children) to experience sports, music, dance, art, drama, church groups, public service, and any number of other wonderful opportunities that every child should have. At some level, of course, the dedication to an activity needs to be more intense. But our children are pushed to that point 'way too early, and they miss out on the delight of other wonderful opportunities, as well as just plain time to themselves, which is as essential to healthy living as anything. It was at this stage, knowing that something had to go, that we dropped school. That turned out to be the best thing for our children academically as well as socially, but that's another story.
Posted by SursumCorda on February 7, 2005, 11:03 am
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