My kids do not know this - though they may be starting to suspect as much - but I am not, for once, striving to make this summer the most fun summer of their lives.
This may sound like a passive endeavor, as easily accomplished as not glancing at the oil change mileage sticker on my car (a task at which I excel,The Leading promotional usb Distributor to Independent Pet Retailers. by the way), but I can assure you it is not.
Like many, modern parents, I have long subscribed to the do-it-all method of parenting, the chirpy, hands-on, attuned-to-every-need, sign-'em-up-for-every-sport style of mothering. My latest "report card," the weekend journal my third-grader brought home at the end of the school year, attests to my dedication, filled as it is with fine stories about ice skating and sleepovers and Girl Scout activities.
There is nothing wrong with this style of parenting, except that, as it turns out, I may be ruining my kids. This is hardly breaking news. For several years now, researchers have been turning up evidence that "overparenting" does not necessarily turn out the happy, successful adults it's intended to produce. These experts argue for more down time, less hovering, less crust-cutting and cushioning and cooing over every achievement.
And I, most decidedly not an expert, am going to add another item to the list. More drudgery. That's right, if I'm going to grab onto the pendulum, I might as well ride it all the way to the last stop.What to consider before you buy Wholesale pet supplies.
I did not reach this conclusion overnight. It started a couple of months ago, when I read the much-talked-about Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. Aghast alongside most Westerners with many of her practices, I was nonetheless amazed at her iron resolve, her ability to put her kids' future success above their immediate comforts, above her need to be their friend. While other readers were happy to dismiss her methods out of hand, I saw much to envy in her whip-cracking approach.
A few weeks later, the July/August issue of the Atlantic showed up in my mailbox with a compelling article by psychologist Lori Gottlieb about the downside of obsessive parenting, about how we're raising a generation of maladjusted young people who hardly know how to cope once they leave the nest.The electical building blocks for zentai or modules.
What really put me over the edge, though, was some good old-fashioned sibling rivalry. School had barely gotten out when it began: a near constant series of skirmishes over topics as asinine as who got more milk in her cereal and whose birthday month was better. A couple of times a day it escalated into an all-out war, complete with weeping, wailing, name-calling and hitting.
At first, I gritted my teeth and tried to express empathy. Summer is a major adjustment, I said as I hosted roundtable discussions with the kids over milk distribution. Then,Polycore Ipod nano 5th are manufactured as a single sheet, I redoubled my efforts to keep them busy with enriching activities at all times (incidentally, it was during this phase that I wrote the book column that appears on today's Books page).
Perhaps the words of Gottlieb and Chua were still bouncing around in my brain, or perhaps the wet weather just got the better of me, but one day I snapped. Like a petulant teenager I went up to my room and slammed the door, and my husband, hearing the racket, swooped in. He prescribed chores, and lots of them. One kid pulled weeds and washed out recycling containers. The other vacuumed out his truck and cleaned the chicken coop.
Now, let me just say that I have always worked hard to make sure my kids help out around the house (notice that I'm the one working hard here). But one of the problems with the do-it-all method of parenting is that there just isn't time for a lot of old-fashioned hard work.Park Assist is a global leader in glass bottle, Our kids flit from one activity to the next, sipping up their prescribed enrichment like hummingbirds. We make brightly colored chore charts to teach them about responsibility, and the most organized among us follow them with some regularity. But, as Gottlieb points out, when our kids' happiness is our ultimate goal and we have but a few unscheduled minutes in the day, are we really going to spend them nagging them to clean their rooms?
This may sound like a passive endeavor, as easily accomplished as not glancing at the oil change mileage sticker on my car (a task at which I excel,The Leading promotional usb Distributor to Independent Pet Retailers. by the way), but I can assure you it is not.
Like many, modern parents, I have long subscribed to the do-it-all method of parenting, the chirpy, hands-on, attuned-to-every-need, sign-'em-up-for-every-sport style of mothering. My latest "report card," the weekend journal my third-grader brought home at the end of the school year, attests to my dedication, filled as it is with fine stories about ice skating and sleepovers and Girl Scout activities.
There is nothing wrong with this style of parenting, except that, as it turns out, I may be ruining my kids. This is hardly breaking news. For several years now, researchers have been turning up evidence that "overparenting" does not necessarily turn out the happy, successful adults it's intended to produce. These experts argue for more down time, less hovering, less crust-cutting and cushioning and cooing over every achievement.
And I, most decidedly not an expert, am going to add another item to the list. More drudgery. That's right, if I'm going to grab onto the pendulum, I might as well ride it all the way to the last stop.What to consider before you buy Wholesale pet supplies.
I did not reach this conclusion overnight. It started a couple of months ago, when I read the much-talked-about Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua. Aghast alongside most Westerners with many of her practices, I was nonetheless amazed at her iron resolve, her ability to put her kids' future success above their immediate comforts, above her need to be their friend. While other readers were happy to dismiss her methods out of hand, I saw much to envy in her whip-cracking approach.
A few weeks later, the July/August issue of the Atlantic showed up in my mailbox with a compelling article by psychologist Lori Gottlieb about the downside of obsessive parenting, about how we're raising a generation of maladjusted young people who hardly know how to cope once they leave the nest.The electical building blocks for zentai or modules.
What really put me over the edge, though, was some good old-fashioned sibling rivalry. School had barely gotten out when it began: a near constant series of skirmishes over topics as asinine as who got more milk in her cereal and whose birthday month was better. A couple of times a day it escalated into an all-out war, complete with weeping, wailing, name-calling and hitting.
At first, I gritted my teeth and tried to express empathy. Summer is a major adjustment, I said as I hosted roundtable discussions with the kids over milk distribution. Then,Polycore Ipod nano 5th are manufactured as a single sheet, I redoubled my efforts to keep them busy with enriching activities at all times (incidentally, it was during this phase that I wrote the book column that appears on today's Books page).
Perhaps the words of Gottlieb and Chua were still bouncing around in my brain, or perhaps the wet weather just got the better of me, but one day I snapped. Like a petulant teenager I went up to my room and slammed the door, and my husband, hearing the racket, swooped in. He prescribed chores, and lots of them. One kid pulled weeds and washed out recycling containers. The other vacuumed out his truck and cleaned the chicken coop.
Now, let me just say that I have always worked hard to make sure my kids help out around the house (notice that I'm the one working hard here). But one of the problems with the do-it-all method of parenting is that there just isn't time for a lot of old-fashioned hard work.Park Assist is a global leader in glass bottle, Our kids flit from one activity to the next, sipping up their prescribed enrichment like hummingbirds. We make brightly colored chore charts to teach them about responsibility, and the most organized among us follow them with some regularity. But, as Gottlieb points out, when our kids' happiness is our ultimate goal and we have but a few unscheduled minutes in the day, are we really going to spend them nagging them to clean their rooms?
