So I’m cracking up at a five-year-old Chinese boy who reportedly has a resume and he’s not the only one! More parents are investing time and money to make sure their kids look good on paper, signing them up for Music and Dance Lessons, Drama School, Art, Language, Entrepreneurship and God knows what else. Like seriously? How about letting kids be kids? Nothing wrong with exposing your little ones to various activities but you can’t expect them to excel at everything! I remember a couple of things I did at 5 and it involved lots of playing and just being a kid. I knew my ABCs, colours, shapes, could spell my name, knew the days of the week and I think I could count to 100 but that was about it. Oh, I also knew where we lived but I didn’t know my parents’ full names. You know that phase where if someone asks what your Mum or Dad’s Name is and you reply “Mummy” or “Daddy” and I think that’s okay because you’re still a child. Of course it would be nice to know in case of an emergency. Kids are kidnapped or get lost and it helps if they know such details but I think we put too much pressure on them these days. Have you seen their school bags? Too many textbooks! The Chinese Boy has apparently read 10,000 books and I have to say I hope his parents were only exaggerating just like we grown-ups like to tweak our CVs to make ourselves look good. Otherwise I’d be concerned if that little boy actually read that many books, and this from someone who loves to read myself and in fact think people don’t read much anymore but as the saying goes, everything in moderation. There are some exceptional kids with unique abilities, which is why some skip grades or graduate well ahead of their peers but that’s different. The average kid needs to be just that and there’s plenty of time for them to grow up and tackle serious life issues. I know the job market is more competitive now and parents and caretakers may indeed only be trying to set their kids up for success later in life but that can backfire. We’ve seen far too many examples of pushy parents who only ended up losing their children. Case in point, the Jackson 5 and I know this is non-academic but all that pressure and abuse Joe Jackson piled on his kids, especially Michael and we wonder why he turned out the way he did. The man didn’t get to enjoy his childhood and every kid deserves that. Some kids are “punished” just for playing outside with their friends. Can you imagine never getting to play Hide and Seek, Stuck in the Mud, Skipping or any of the fun games we enjoyed as children? There’s a lot parents can do to shape their children’s future without stressing the poor kids. Don’t force them to take up certain subjects just because that’s what you think will land them a six figure job. Plan their future but get their opinion too. Ask about their aspirations and if it’s different from what you’d hoped for, don’t ridicule them or issue ultimatums. Limit TV time but don’t ban them from watching TV altogether. Work, or study in this case, without play…
