Blind Sided Thought

I don’t often base things on Hollywood, however under the right circumstance I feel movies like music can invoke more than just entertainment.

The movie is The Blind Side, based on a true story it’s about how a wealthy family adopts a boy who ends up being an exceptional football player. Now I may not be a member of a wealthy family, and I have yet to become an amazing athlete. However I do relate to the story… I too lack a biological mother as a role model, I have had multiple “moms” influence me to my current path and I will admit that this relation moved me a bit and left me thinking about how I got where I am today.

I took the thought a step further and instead of how I got to my current situation, how do children manage to comeback from great adversity? Children live for the moment in a lot of ways, scrape their knee and the next day they are climbing trees and performing various acts that could wind up in further injury… however they do it because it’s fun and fun is the most important part of being a kid. The same is true for emotional trauma, we all experienced the loss of a pet as a child and although we may have been sad for a week, month maybe? In the end we were able to overcome the feelings and move on.

Now I’m not saying we all need to adopt the next child we see, but take the time to be there for a child. Even if you don’t have your own children you can still be a positive influence of change! Why not volunteer for a childrens charity? Or get involved with your local big brothers, big sisters? Even small involvement could have profound effects on a childs future can you remember an experience or a person who helped you as a child?

Hyper Parenting: More isn't better

It doesn’t matter if your gen. X, Y, millennial, or boomer. We all share a common responsibility of creating a healthy environment to raise our children… but what if the biggest issue isn’t external but parents themselves? Over the next few entries I’d like to consider the future of kids.

Hyper Parenting is becoming a dangerous trend, rather than allowing kids to make their own choices parents instead have created schedules for every aspect of their childs life. This trend began with the discovery that our brains make more connections in the first years of our life compared to any other time of our lives. Business capitalized on this, creating hundreds of systems with the objective of “training baby” Who doesn’t want to give their child an edge in this competitive world? Although the best intentions these super parents are causing problems that will affect their child well into adulthood.

Children need to lose! I can’t remember when the transition happened but in elementary school we stopped getting first, second, and third instead we got “participation ribbons.” No one was cut from the team and everyone got equal opportunity. When I was younger I would challenge my dad to chess; I lost every single game because he refused to let me win. However, I kept trying and because I tried I learned, without failure and competition kids miss out on valuable skills needed later in the workforce such as persistence, problem solving, and determination.

Generation Y it’s up to us! We we’re raised by hyper parents, but we don’t need to replicate their strategy. We can go back to letting kids be kids, un-structured play, win & lose, freedom to choose and the trust to explore. It’s important to involve children in the choice of what activities they would like to do rather than choosing activities that we feel are necessary to accomplish the “perfect child image.” Humans are imperfect and that’s what makes us unique, by admitting to an imperfection in a child we can truly admire their success.