Episode 13 - Putting Unrealistic Expectations On Our Children
Release Date: 09/04/2018
In today’s episode we will talk about statues and sculptures of women, putting unrealistic expectations on our children, power balls and as always, we will do a spotlight of an inspiring woman. Come listen in!
Episode 13 Shownotes:
Current Event
Company Wanting More Female Statues and Sculptures
Main Topic
The Perils of Pushing Kids Too Hard and How Parents Can Learn to Back Off
Studio 5 segment on how to determine if an extracurricular activity is a good choice or not
Colleges Aren’t Looking For Well-Rounded Students
Angular vs. Well-Rounded Students
Most Children Grow Up to be "Just People" by Tiffany Sowby
Favorite Things
Line a Day - Five year memory journal
Think Up App (Playstore or App Store)
Inspiring Woman
Additional Main Topic Notes:
“We tend to celebrate the woman who has the packed life and somehow manages it (we talked about this in our episode about wearing busyness as a badge of honor), and we also want our kids to have experiences . . . but putting too much stock into those things can end up leading our kids to feel some significant and unnecessary stress.
What to keep:
- Playtime
- Downtime
- Family time (schedule it!!)
- Activities the kids actually enjoy (even if they aren’t good at it!)
What to control:
- How much academic stress kids feel (some research shows that what stresses kids out the most is academics - about 3X as much as extracurriculars) We can control our own expectations we put on them (their worth and your love for them cannot be tied to their academic achievement), their workload (Scott and Betsy)
- Activities that build values
- Activities that interfere with family time
- Kids feeling defined by what they do (and how many things they do), not who they are
What to cross off:
- Activities for us
- Activities that used to be fun but aren’t anymore
- Activities that prevent kids from healthy habits or growing experiences (little little girls in 8pm dance classes, or never home for dinner)
If there’s more than 10 hours of extracurriculars a week, that’s WAY too many!
Malcolm Gladwell’s “David and Goliath” and the examples of 2 different people in the same field going to Harvard vs. an unknown college. (The one dropped out because he couldn’t handle being “THE BEST” like he always was in high school while the other one went on to get the degree and become totally successful in the field.)