Our Hurriend Children

"Our Hurried Children"

by: David Elkind

I do agree with Elkind to some degree. Some parents are rushing their children into adulthood. Kids now days have alot more stress than earlier times because parents expect so much out of their "smart, gifted, and potiential" offspring. It feels at times like there is no room for "failure" or "mistakes"; well that's why erasers are on pencils because people DO make mistakes.

I've personally dealt with the struggle of a parent trying to shove the responsibilities of "adulthood" down my throat. It's no fun; I don't feel confident if I let them down or don't achieve what "they" wanted me to achieve. Everytime I messed up, I would get scorned constantly for it. That's enough stress right there, along with school work and preparing for college. Overall, I understood why my parent was so hard on me, they just wanted me to be extra prepared for the future. Now I can see how getting ready early has helped me now, and I have less stress. The reduction in my stress level has also came about because my parent started letting me have room for mistakes. This helped tremendously with coping with my problems. I believe when it comes to raising your child and preparing them for adulthood, you need to have the right balance.

Here's a research article on the expectations about timing of adulthood: http://www.transad.pop.upenn.edu/downloads/between.pdf