Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Is That the Best Use of Your Time?

I read this article today at work, and it made me tired. It's on the heels of another article I read in Newsweek about uber-moms. The latter was enough to make me not want to have kids for another 10 years. The fact of the matter is, I want to have kids in the next few years. But, I digress.

I just want to put my two cents out there about how I hate the fact that people now seem to have their lives revolving around their children. Adult parents have no time to themselves, let alone with each other, because they let their kids run everything! Whatever happened to baby-sitters? Whatever happened to telling your kids no? No, you can't play baseball and hockey and take piano lessons all at the same time because Mommy only has one car. No, you can't have a new video game. Use your imagination. Whatever happened to 'down time?' Kids dream up imaginary friends because they are bored and want someone to play their 'pretend' games with, like house or army (depending on gender). When was the last time you saw a kid who looked bored? If they looke bored, you are probably mis-interpretting the half-closed eyes and lack of attention as boredom, when it's really exhaustion. There's been a lot of articles written on this topic lately, and I will not even begin to pretend that I have an answer to the growing problem of over-scheduling. I also have the luxury of having a job that is pretty much and 8-hour-a-day job, with occasional needs for over-time. But I still would like to know that when we do get around to having children, and I have to decide if I want to work full-time or part-time, or even stay at home, that I will continue to have a life, albeit a very different one, and it won't revolve around my children!

I will leave you with this....when I do have children, you can bet your ass that they can ride in the back-seat of the car and just stare out the windows! We can play 'I Spy' or the license plate game if they get bored.

2 comments:

Pigs said...

But mom! Everybody else gets a Gameboy in the car!

I know what you mean. Can't agree more. Imagine what those moms expect teachers to do for them! I have one who has requested that I make sure her daughter is dressed for cheerleading at the end of the day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Yeah...okay.

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with you. I don't have any children yet, but I have absolutely no intentions of making everything revolve around them - and I don't make any apologies for it either. At the same time, I acknowledge and support the women who do it - I just won't be one of them.