The Kindergarten Rat Race

Why am I the only parent in America who is looking forward to my child finishing school so that we can laze around, sleep in, and live an unscheduled life? Other parents I know are running around trying to sign up their kids for every activity in the great wide world so that their children will be occupied every day this summer. For my kids, I have a two-week day camp planned, a week at the beach later in the summer, and lots of time goofing off on the agenda. I just can't get into this hyper-scheduling mindset. It is almost like people are afraid to spend time with their kids or at home. Or maybe they just think that it will help their kids to get ahead if they are exposed to every possible thing early in life. But come on, my oldest is in KINDERGARTEN. I was still eating paste in Kindergarten and my life was one big haze of playing, eating, sleeping. There were not millions of activities on the calendar at all times. It seems that 99% of the parents I know have ADD because they must fill their kids lives with a never-ending string of enrichment! Didn't someone important once say that kids learn best through play?