Child's Play

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. We knew that many generations ago. Yet, somehow, we forgot that. So, between our need to get our kids into the ivy schools, and our desire to keep them safe, we became helicopter parents, constantly hovering over our children. We even came to think that letting our kids be unsupervised before the age of 12 is somehow negligent.

Then, we remembered the need for physical fitness, and so we added soccer, T-ball, dance, and tai-chi to their weekly routine, and demanded PE classes at schools.

Now we find that children benefit more from recess and playing on the street in front of the house, than from the little league games. Much is being written about the correlation between unstructured, unsupervised play, and executive decision making power.

Here is my take on all this: It is over-analyzing our kids' lives that has led to over-achieving, stressed out, maladjusted, misbehaving, or just under-achieving kids that the experts attribute to lack of play. It also has lead to stressed out, over-achieving, maladjusted parents, and I am certain that in a few years there will be articles about the toll parenting is taking on parents.

So, as a self-appointed-expert, I have some advise for the parent-in-me:

1. Don't be an active parent every moment of your life. Get a hobby or spend some time with your friends, and let the kids do the same.

2. Find a community that shares your values, and let the community do some of the work. They say "It takes a village to raise a child" for a reason.

3. The only definition of success is happiness. The best way to teach your child to be happy in adulthood is to be happy oneself.