Busy children building performance and character     010

These days it seems that parents are busy—earning a living, commuting, juggling work and child rearing commitments, dealing with homework, and trying to make some time for themselves. All this seems difficult but many capable men and women are making a splendid success, and this success positively influences their children.

Media articles sometimes appear on this type of subject and unfortunately most writers seem to take a negative perspective. Children are described as being subject to fatigue, stress, and having no time for themselves. The truth is that children are very resilient and have an enormous amount of natural energy. Busyness can provide children with very valuable opportunities. The real issue that should be focused on is how these opportunities are provided and managed. Of course parents know that children need rest, and that activities need to be chosen carefully to allow sufficient focus so there can be the desired growth and development.

Young Australians preparing for the Olympic Games obviously have to devote much time to training but also have complete their schoolwork. Meals often need to be eaten in the car on the way to and from training venues. Their productivity and success are applauded. Consider also the situation with children at Australian outback cattle stations. These children are at their desk by 7:30 am and have to work through some six hours of schoolwork, including compulsory interactive online lessons from the School of the Air. After that there might be helping with mustering, feeding and grooming horses, and many other jobs. Outback children are on the go every minute.  The result?  These children and their parents are helping to build Australia.

City children can also have busy lives. Here is an example of one Year Five child’s weekend. Saturday: 8.00-9.00 am sport; 10.00-11.00 am tutoring; 2.00-3.00 pm music; 5.00-6.00 swimming.  Sunday: 9.00-2.00 pm more sport; and 2.00-5.00 pm birthday party attendance. It seems exhausting but that could be because many children do almost nothing on the weekend except play with their computers. This child is fortunate to have parents who are able to provide the activities, and is very likely to benefit from them. This child still has, counting Friday night, approximately 10 hours of personal free time including eating, allowing for a 12 hour day and time for travel. And during all the activities the child would be interacting with his or her friends, and building social skills as well. Parents are also building their friendship networks and this makes the entire family resilient.

Productive scheduling should not be confused with a trend which has arisen termed ‘helicopter’ parenting. This term refers to a parent who is over involved in communication with the school—sometimes using email etc.—because they want to monitor and control their child’s every activity. Such parents usually have unrealistic expectations of how schools might respond.

Let’s celebrate engaged and productive parents, and be thankful for their children who will have the potential for very positive development, for the benefit of everyone.

All content copyright—Mark Thackray—Australian Educational Services