In life we find different types of parents. You can read more about the different types here.
But I want to focus on the parents who encourages their kids to be the best they can be, parents who find it more important for their children to be themselves and develop to their own abilities.
On the other side we have parents who put too much pressure on their kids and parents who force their kids in to every possible scenario just so that the parent can live out his dreams through the child.
You must decide for yourself what type of parent you are, but many parents put too much pressure on their kids and keep them so busy that they actually burn out the poor kid. Very demanding parents.
I do not know if it is an unconscious mistake or if it is to have bragging rights about what your kid takes part in or can accomplish, but whatever the reason, your child can be too busy and you as a parent must realize this before it causes trouble or resentment.
It is not always the parents but can actually be the child himself that puts a lot of time and effort into taking part in everything.
Reasons can be they have a fear of being left out or missing something or it can be in the case of teenagers that they feel they have to participate in as many activities as they can to make sure they have a good chance to get into a university.
It is good if a child is involved in certain activities, but it can be that it gets too busy and the child does not have any time for just relaxing.
These kids that are over active or booked with activities will eventually begin showing signs like being too tired to take part in daily activities, complaining of headaches or be stressed out.
It can also influence interactions with friend and take time away from the family and most of all taking away from just being a child.
In the same way as what we as adults enjoy some down time from work, a kid also deserves that, so if he/she is always just busy with activities and homework, where will they get time to just feel free from any obligations?
It can also put a lot of strain on the parents, because they have to drive to and watch all these activities.
If you feel or see that your child is too busy you as a parent will have to step in and help them to understand that is is fine not to take part in everything or help them create a balance.
If you are the type of parent who is behind the whole situation of keeping your child too busy, you will have to ease up - you do not always want to work or do something, so why are you forcing it on your kid?
If you want to help your child, you can look at things like restricting them to participate in only one sport per season, if you feel that they are not going to get around to doing their homework on time, or will have to work on it too late, they cannot take part in sports that carry on till late. Help them to set priorities, in other words the most important thing, which is their school work, must come first and if there is time left for other things they may participate in it.
Read here for some extra tips how to cope with this.
It is good for children to be busy and take part in certain activities to teach them skills, but being over exerted is not the way to go.
A balance may be difficult to achieve, but if you put your mind to it and keep in mind that children must still be children and not stressed out the whole time, it will help achieve it.
