Reply to "I lived the happiest childhood a child could possibly know”

Forum Index » Elementary School-Aged Kids

Reply to ""I lived the happiest childhood a child could possibly know”"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It is bizarre how posters here are unaware of the benefits and needs of unstructured play for kids and keep justifying their childrens scheduled activities. The reality is everyone is in a rat race. Parents sign kids up for activities because of FOMO.. because their child will be left behind. That is the ugly truth. We are all in such a competitive race that we forget that just because Larlo likes piano it doesn’t mean Maya should also do piano.. and we keep signing them up and then we lie and justify that our kids love their activities. Very few kids love their activities so much that they want to go to one every freaking day. Keep fooling yourselves..[/quote]

This is the type of thing I have a problem with.  Folks like OP are on such a quest to give their kids free play, opportunity to roam, get messy, etc. that they make up this false narrative about structured activities like this -- they eschew and disparage them all.  They think no kids actually enjoys any amount of them; they think there is no benefit in any of them and it's just about FOMO instead.  Baloney!

An ES kid who does like one rec sport and plays an instrument is not over scheduled, but folks like OP would have you believe they are.  There are well-documented mental, social, and emotional benefits to those activities just like free play\.  Folks like OP seem to have no concept of how many hours are in a day and how many days are in a week.  It's this bizarre all or nothing proposition with them.

My 10 yr old DD loves her rec soccer team and LOVES LOVES LOVES the musical theatre program she is a part of.  She still has plenty of time to bike ride with her neighborhood friends, play with her sister in the backyard, hang out with friends, etc...  Most ES kids don't get that much homework (she doesn't at her school) so there really is plenty of time.  She is benefiting from all of it and a happy kid.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics