The Conscious Parent

classes before they are of school age, in the hope of giving them a push
ahead of the curve. Since we know how important social networking is,
we also begin to monitor who they associate with. Many of us also fall
into the trap of gearing their after-school activities not according to their
interests, but according to how such activities will look on a college
application.
Never having learned to sit in stillness and appreciate their intrinsic
being, the children of parents with great expectations of their offspring
are desperate for a sense of value. These are the parents who have
prestigious college applications in their drawer before their child turns
seven, pushing their children in a predetermined direction without
listening to whether this is truly their child’s destiny.
When activities oriented toward getting into a top school become the
focus of our children’s day, they don’t have the luxury of allowing their
essence to develop. Floundering internally, they determine their worth
according to the yardstick of accomplishment. If their ability to
accomplish fails to hold up, they are likely to question their value, their
talent, and their purpose.
Especially in their early years, our children need the space to delve
into their natural inclinations and practice expressing what they find
there. Our task is to respond with delight, conveying through our eyes
and our smile that they are most adored when they are in the act of being.
Whenever you feel the need for your children to excel by engaging in
an overload of activities, you might ask yourself whether your
motivation is truly to enable them to become who they authentically are,
or whether you have a need to bask in their glory. If your child doesn’t