Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Fast-Paced Kids In A Fast-Paced World

If you can hold still long enough to really process the following thought,  it could possibly make some sense. Many of our fast-paced kids come from fast-paced adults and a hurricane-paced society. Seriously, we adults - the ones they look up to, are dashing around at lightning-speed with our gadgets that don't let us get a second away from anything. We work several jobs, while running errands and eating on the go in between those jobs. Somehow, in the craziness, we are trying our best to raise well-adjusted kids who can sit still and remain calm while we zip about. We pride ourselves in owning everything that's needed to track our lifestyles and it's all branded "multifunctioning" like us! Family time consists of more and more meals around the big-screen t.v., shuffling rapidly through 150 channels while keeping a couple favorites in small side screens. (Darn it. If I can work 3 jobs I should be able to watch 3 shows at once.) Toss in a couple of laptops and our "family time" is complete.

And then there's entertainment: Game Cube, Xbox, DS, Wii, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance. I'm behind on all the latest but it's generally not "Monopoly" and "Slap Jack." Wow! My heart rate increased just writing all this!

We cannot think to change society's speed and drive at this point. Neither can we force our kids to live a different pace than we choose. I do not discredit the real affects of clinical ADHD. I do not suggest for a moment that the only factor in our kids' issues here is our pace. That would be to trivialize something larger than life. But as I sat still for 20 minutes this evening, I wondered if maybe 5% of Bobby's rate of motion comes from keeping up with us? And maybe, just maybe, if we keep looking for ways to "get away from it all," and relax in nature, he will benefit too.


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