When is 'grit' bad for your kids?
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- Created: Thursday, 15 September 2016 16:31
Is perseverance a good thing to encourage in your kids?
Don’t you think we give in too easily these days and should stick to our guns a bit more?
I recently read an article (can’t lay my hands on it at the minute, sorry) that said research had shown that families where parents pushed their kids to stick at things they weren’t necessarily mad keen on doing, led to anxiety and possible depression. The term used was ‘grit’. The Bible would probably use the word ‘perseverance’.
Now some parents are blindly pushy, right? You feel sorry for the kids who clearly look brow beaten on the court. But some of us just want to give our kids opportunities to learn things that they’ll later thank us for…or so goes the rationale.
Who doesn’t wish they learnt that instrument when they were a kid? ‘Why didn’t my parents push me!? If only I could sing, play that harp, bang those drums and bring joy to my soul and a smile to others’. But to get that skill takes dedication and perseverance; years of grit...
I read a story a while ago of a public school in Sydney that was requiring all parents to provide an iPad for their kids at kindergarten. One parent objected noting that ‘iPads are not educationally proven – we think our kids should get concrete learning in writing and the basics throughout the whole of primary school’. However, by far the biggest concern for me would be the difficulty in protecting such young children who really are just starting to negotiate the world of real friendships, from the precarious and often narcisstic world of social media.
Look out across most primary schools in Sydney and you’ll see kids dressed to battle with the sun. Thanks to motivated Parents & Citizens (P&C) groups and the support of teachers our little Johnnies have never been better protected from the sun’s harmful rays. Trendy but ineffective caps have been replaced by broad brimmed hats; light breathable long sleeves have replaced short sleeve shirts and of course there’s plenty of sunscreen available when kids need it. Playgrounds too are now often shaded with expensive shade cloth sails and even the barren, sun parched assembly areas now have permanent roofing to keep sun off our kids while they play or listen to those tiring speeches.
