It's Not Easy Being A Kid

A detailed Summary of It's Not Easy Being A Kid

Today many parents' major concern is that their children "stay ahead of the pack", and keep "an edge" over the competition. There are children enrolled on waiting lists at nursery schools while still in their mother's wombs. For the same reason, schools are filled with children in enriched and accelerated programs. And children are being started in competitive sports like swimming and tennis at a very early age. Of course, there is nothing wrong with wanting children to live up to their potential. It is the excessive pressure that some parents put on their children to succeed academically and socially that can cause problems in the families which can lead to rebellious behaviour, teen pregnancy, teenage suicide and many other serious issues (Elkind, 1988).

Most often during the middle childhood years, children feel pressures from a number of sources. They may feel pressured from within themselves, from parents, from teachers and peers and from society. The pressure for early academic achievement is but one of many contemporary pressures on children to grow up fast. Many parents are putting tremendous pressure on children to perform at ever earlier ages. The pressure culminates at the high s

The overwhelming pressures and the thought of rejection can seriously affect the child's physical or psychological well being. According to David Elkind, (1988), "Hurried children seem to make up a large portion of the troubled children seen by clinicians today; they constitute many of the young people experiencing school failure, those involved in delinquency and drugs, and those who are committing suicide. They also include many of the children who have chronic psychosomatic complaints such as headaches and stomachaches, who are chronically unhappy, hyperactive, or lethargic and unmotivated. These diseases and problems have long been recognized as stress-related in adults, and it is time we look at children and stress under the same light." When a child experience too many pressures, or the stressors are too intense, the child may become overloaded, therefore, children must respond to these pressures. Children typically welcome some events, while there are more difficult for them to take on (Schor, 68). Young school-age children will sometimes express their feelings directly. Some children show it through sadness, depression, or withdrawal (Schor, 73). Other children may express feelings of stress outwardly and begin to misbehave (Schor, 75). When children are stressed the child's grades begin to fall, the child appears depressed, seems restless, tired and agitated, develop eating problems, and the child exhibits antisocial behaviour, such as lying and stealing, forgets or refuses to do chores, and seems more dependent on the parent than in the past (Schor, 76). These are some of the effects that stress may have on a child but there are more signs of behaviour that have a negative impact on a child. Whether pare

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Approximate Word count = 1171
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics