Thursday, February 5, 2009
After school dilemma
I overheard bits and pieces of a break room conversation this afternoon - sort of a pushy-pageant mom or soccer mom vs. the more laid-back do-nothing-after-school mom. I guess I'm somewhere in between - at least I hope I'm not pushing my kids to do things that they don't want to do - actually, I'm pretty sure they would feel free to let me know. It's hard to know how much is too much or if they're not doing enough - after all you hear about how important it is to be well-rounded if you want to get into a good college. I'm interested to hear other opinions on the subject, so please vote in my poll or leave me a comment.
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This is an interesting topic and one which I deal with constantly. In today's society many parents seem to be allowing their young children to quit something just because they want to. It is important that we, as parents, always remember that we are the parent. Children need to learn self discipline and everytime we give in they are learning that their whining and crying is better than truly gaining success.
ReplyDeleteIt is also important to note that putting your child in one or more activities outside of school will help them as they reach their teen years and college to use successful time management. Without this failure is quite often immenent.
In terms of being enjoyable...I agree that it should be but most of the time the no longer wants to participate in an activity, be it sports, karate, music lessons or whatever it is because they have reached the point that it requires hard work. Allowing them to quit teaches them it is alright to start something and then just fail at it because they did not want to truly learn proper work ethics...which are required more now than ever for children to succeed.
I agree that being in at least one activity is important. My parents didn't really push me, but once I started something I wasn't allowed to quit until I finished out the year or season. That made me more apt to really give it a try.
ReplyDeleteBy the time I finished high school, I had a rounded list of activities to go along with my good grades. I was told by scholarship panels that everyone who applies has good grades, it was my activities that gave me an edge. I ended up with 75% of my college expenses for free....just saying.
Thank you for your comments - we have the same rule at our house - once you start an activity you have to stick it out for the season or year. Interest in dance class always seems to wane in the middle of the year, before they learn their dance for recital, but after recital they're always ready to sign up again for the next year - and want to take even more classes. They were the same with 4-H - right before project judging they were ready to quit but right after judging they were ready for the next year. We had the same rule when I was growing up and I'm really glad we've made it a rule for the girls.
ReplyDeleteAs a parent we wanted our children to become more active and involved in activities that would assist them in growing besides getting them in shape. Our kids were big into sitting on the computer for hours each night but they had little energy and their grades were suffering as a result. Upon recommendation from friends we enrolled them at Franz Karate. The experience has been great and very positive for our kids. At first they did not enjoy going since it was interfering in their online time but that soon changed as they made friends there and their self esteem began to increase. Their grades have gotten better and they are much more active with our oldest showing interest in other sports as well now. I highly recommend enrolling your children at their school. I was talking to one of my friends who is a college professor and he said that children who attain black belt level in martial arts and put that on their application quite often get huge kudos for this since it considered a great achievement and one that colleges see as positive. Getting children involved in karate is perhaps the greatest after school thing you can do for your child and if they are in sports it will make them a top shape athlete since the training is very rigorous.
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