That’s a hell of a clickbait headline for a supposed paper of record. I don’t even disagree with the premise. It doesn’t make it less disgusting though.
That aside, the weight of this sits on the parents, not society. Parents dump their children into scholastic programs and extra curriculars not because of the results, they do so because they’re lazy and refuse to do the tasks themselves. They think it’s difficult to discipline children and would rather pay someone to watch their child scribble with crayons while they sip a latte then spend an hour actually reading to them.
This also leads to them feeling like the time a child spends “doing nothing” is a bad thing. Far from it. That’s when a child learns to be bored. Show me a child that’s never been bored and I’ll show you one that’s never going to be independent. The first step of independence is occupying the space between your ears.
With five kids of my own, I can certainly say that an hour of play would reduce the perfectly groomed worlds of most people to rubble while leaving them in tears. That’s not to argue against play it’s just that you have to accept that it’s not quite something you can post to Instagram.
Did I write my comment that poorly that you think I care more about social activity than my kids fun? I didn’t think I did but maybe I’m interpreting your comments incorrectly.
That aside, the weight of this sits on the parents, not society. Parents dump their children into scholastic programs and extra curriculars not because of the results, they do so because they’re lazy and refuse to do the tasks themselves. They think it’s difficult to discipline children and would rather pay someone to watch their child scribble with crayons while they sip a latte then spend an hour actually reading to them.
This also leads to them feeling like the time a child spends “doing nothing” is a bad thing. Far from it. That’s when a child learns to be bored. Show me a child that’s never been bored and I’ll show you one that’s never going to be independent. The first step of independence is occupying the space between your ears.