Oh the power of the internet, of instant gratification in the quest of information. I recently came upon this article and realized that surely I am not alone in the way I think about parenting and childhood. I admit that I am not an early childhood educator, but as this article points out … nurture cannot trample nature and thus, early childhood educators will not be able to alter a child’s innate nature.
I like to jest that my house is like a miniature version of Toys R Us. In reality, we have lots of toys but not any more than any other average american house. The difference is that I didn’t have even a tenth of these toys growing up and turned out just fine. My mother-in-law says that Evan and his sister had even more toys … and I sometimes ask myself whether I am doing enough. On the other hand, I worry about spoiling Sophia and raising her to believe she should always have everything and everything should be taken care of for her. Toys, education, activities are all privileges and not rights.
I notice that many children do not know how to play on their own and self-occupy. Activities galore, heavy schoolbags, after-school programs and what you have are tired, grumpy children who almost never play outside and have no idea how to play on their own.
I am not saying that my style (free range parenting) is the right way, but it certainly reinforces that involvement is necessary just in moderation.
I could not agree more, but you probably already know that! The thing with kids that they just don’t know what to do with all this abundance of stuff and things to do, and by the time they are teenagers, they are bored and disappointed. I’m not saying it’s an epidemic, not all kids are like that, but it is certainly something that is quite widespread, and this is sad.