Childhood Is Under Attack. To The Rescue!
I urge you, my comrades.
Childhood… I’m 42 and have fond memories of that carefree time. If you’re my age, I bet you have too.
Tree climbing, playing hide and seek every single day on the streets, eating fruits from the neighbors’ trees, playing soccer barefoot. Fun was a central part of my life at that time. Good and old times.
I knew very little about the adult world. I lived in a child world, with child worries and responsibilities. I was protected from the adult world. Thanks, mom. Thanks, dad.
But things are different now. Very different. Parents don’t see anymore childhood as a sacred period of play and fun. No, they see childhood as preparation for adulthood. And, man, lemme tell ya, they are in a hurry.
Take little Frankie, who’s learning a foreign language since he was 3. And what about Garnet? At age 6, she takes piano classes twice a week, plays soccer and tennis, and takes programming classes. Oh, almost forgot, next year she’ll take entrepreneurship lessons too.
Fun took a backseat to accomplishment — and this is not fun.
I feel sad for all the Frankies and Garnets out there.
I feel sad because they have no idle time to engage in creative play. I feel sad because, in addition to the CEO agenda they have to follow, they do not play for the sake of playing anymore. Instead, they play in preparation for a competition. I feel sad because so many children are stressed these days.
Hear me out: a resume of a 10-year-old kid that looks like the one of an adult is not something to celebrate, but to condemn.
Why hurry?
Life expectancy in most developed countries is around 80 years. What this means is that our children will have plenty of time to be adults. Like 7 decades. SEVEN. So, why hurry? Why start adulthood before they turn 10? Why abbreviate the immense joy of being a child?
Have you ever heard about Jean Piaget’s “American question”? No? Long story short, he was perplexed at how common it was for American parents to ask him “But doc, how can we speed this up?”.
Let’s not speed things up. Let’s slow down.
After all, why would a boy need to be fluent in a foreign language before age 10? Wouldn’t be good enough to reach that milestone by age 15? Why on Earth would a 7-year-old girl need “entrepreneurship skills”?
Again, slow down.
Our mission as parents: to protect childhood from adulthood
I’m not saying we should protect children from all responsibilities and worries. What I’m saying is we should protect them from ADULT responsibilities and worries.
A child should be responsible for cleaning up after his play and doing his homework, but shouldn’t worry about rent money.
Their schedules shouldn’t be so filled up with activities so that there is no idle time for unstructured play. Just put a bunch of kids together and let them be. No, they don’t need an adult to entertain them.
Does your son prefer soccer to basketball? Let him play soccer. Having fun is important, which applies to us parents as well.
Last, but not least, they shouldn’t be exposed to inappropriate sexual content. These days, with the internet at our fingertips, we must be especially vigilant. So, sorry, but your daughter shouldn’t be seeing Game of Thrones at age 8.
In summary, children must live in a children’s world. Don’t allow adulthood to maculate this sacred realm. This is the best gift you can give to your children.
Do you know what I want? I want my daughter to tell me, a few decades from now, “hey dad, thanks for letting me be just a child”.
Don’t you want that too?
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