Your baby is here, and as soon as it opens its eyes, it’s given an array of black, red, and white items, mirrors, noisy objects, and pictures of other children. This, after all, enhances your child’s vision, touch, and listening capabilities and prepared him or her for grasping, touching, and talking. Pretty soon, you and your child will be reading Shakespeare together and solving differential equations.
But do you even do those during your free time – or are you hoping that your child will get to them soon enough? A recent editorial in The Express Tribune seems to think that the latter is the case. The author goes on to detail how parents’ competition with other parents starts, essentially, as soon as the baby arrives. They talk about the various milestones their child reaches, hoping their baby is the first to walk or talk, and over time, this develops into the modern-day helicopter parents phenomena that have, literally and figuratively, descended on nearly every college campus, hoping their children are the best and the brightest – and stay that way, no matter what it takes.
But should parental competition get to this, and what’s the best strategy for stopping and, basically, laying off and calming down? While the author of the Express Times article mentions that this competition and resulting pressure stresses the child out too much, the solution is letting children develop and reach milestones at their own pace. Basically, put down the Baby Einstein and your kid will be fine in the long run – she may even get into Harvard.
Of course, such a notion is easier said than done, and not joining in with other parents discussing their children’s development may seem like you’re distancing yourself. But is risking your child being burned out by the time he or she is five the best strategy for parenting?
