One way that Silicon Valley parenting anxiety rubbing off on me and I hate it.
I have this nagging feeling that as a PhD-level SAHM, that I should have this ability to scrutinize my children down to the curl of their last nose hair and therefore divine the subject of their expertise. The sooner the better, because they need medals, championships, and master achievements to add to college resumes and make every other kid look useless in the game of life. So how about tracking Bruce into water polo at age 5 and Dana into piano at age 3 and yield Olympic golds and Van Cliburn awards respectively. Dana likes art, should I put her in oil painting classes this year? Bruce likes to build, should we set up a robot lab in the garage and teach him how to program before christmas? Ugh, it's giving me a gray hair.
I'm all for extra-curriculars, honestly. Teaching them fun things to do now gives them an stress outlet and valuable lessons for use in life later. This area has excellent options for kids and I'd love to take advantage of them all because I didn't have these kinds of choices growing up. However, I can't do everything because: 1) time is not unlimited; 2) $ is not unlimited; and 3) I cannot really know a priori exactly how much they'll like the activity. As much as all this stuff costs now, it's still cheaper than rehab later. What I don't want is the over-scheduling to start creeping in and the Rat Race defining their lives. I think that as long as I set some limits and communicate effectively with my kids about what they like, then we'll see the right path. Until then, it's time to schedule the Fall semester's list of things to do.
I'm all for extra-curriculars, honestly. Teaching them fun things to do now gives them an stress outlet and valuable lessons for use in life later. This area has excellent options for kids and I'd love to take advantage of them all because I didn't have these kinds of choices growing up. However, I can't do everything because: 1) time is not unlimited; 2) $ is not unlimited; and 3) I cannot really know a priori exactly how much they'll like the activity. As much as all this stuff costs now, it's still cheaper than rehab later. What I don't want is the over-scheduling to start creeping in and the Rat Race defining their lives. I think that as long as I set some limits and communicate effectively with my kids about what they like, then we'll see the right path. Until then, it's time to schedule the Fall semester's list of things to do.