If you are reading it then either you are a curious reader or you need perfection in your kid.
Theoretically you know how bad the rat race is and it’s even worse to be a part of it. You are even aware of the fact that pressuring, judging or comparing your kid is just not correct. Your theoretical knowledge is impeccable but most of you go extremely haywire when it comes to implementation on your kid.
Consciously or unconsciously you make your kid feel bad that he or she is just a regular kid. Why do all of you only want a genius (unfortunately, the definition of genius also varies from parent to parent)?
“My kid is not good at sitting at one place. My kid loves to jump and talk with friends. He/She freaks out on hands on activities. Probably my kid is just that typical kid who could play outside all day and not get tired”.
Sadly our education system along with you as parents takes that joy of learning away more and more each year as the kid grows. The system is crazy on setting on increasing testing numbers by forcing the “child” out of your kid. Unfortunately, most of the parents want the 2-3 years old kids to be like 10 years old.
“Sit, be still, learn this fast (even its it’s not age appropriate) as I feel you should know this, score well or we will be forced to have an intervention (tuition classes for kids of just 4 years)”
The thought process at times is – If kids cannot be silent, they are a distraction. If kids cannot be silent, they should be punished.
If they cannot be silent, we should take away the time they have for Not being silent.
Hope it makes you feel pathetic while reading it as these might be just a couple of things that you are subconsciously doing with your kid.
When will you wake up and realize that you are detrimentally hurting your child by no longer allowing him/her to just be a child?
Personally I get frustrated as an Early Childcare Educator when you tell me that my student is failing as a kindergartner just because your benchmark for him/her is unrealistic or based on your kids peers. I sincerely hope that you as a parent also feel the understand the harm being done to him/her.
For crying out loud, we as a school are not asking for children to be able to act like wild animals. However, please come and understand the Niño & Niña philosophy from us that learning through play does take up too much time but it’s a learning for life. So be patient and confident in our teaching methodologies. What your 3 or 4 year old needs to learn by the end of kindergarten should be age appropriate and not what your neighbor’s kid of his/her age can do.
Compare your child with just your child. Imagine if they start comparing you with your peers – and trust me “Eventually, They Will” as had seen it through.
-Divya Joshi
