Whatever happened to balance? For moderation and healthy lives, what our kids really need is coursework with the right amount of rigorous study, physical activity in alignment with their passion, parental guidance to ensure balance and timely social interactions appropriate for their age. In addition, they need healthy balanced diets, proper sleep and a healthy balance between screen time and free play. Many families find it difficult to balance these often competing needs. To make matters worse, parents today are often being driven by a sense of competitiveness with other parents that seem to be fostering an outright epidemic, as though a child’s college and occupation must be planned by the time they enter middle school. Actually in some communities, the planning begins in pre-school. Is it really a mystery why adolescent mental health issues have been declared an epidemic by the U.S. Surgeon General of Health? This book outlines 10 simple steps based on research. They are created to help parents keep in mind as they raise their children in our high pressure world.
Tales from Swankville is a collection of poignant essays inspired by authentic conversations with over 1,000 students attending community college but who lived all over the country and the world. Every semester Siah would give students a prompt to respond to from an article about a book called, The Price of Privilege. which addresses the price youth pay with their health and happiness to overachieve. The comments and experiences Siah’s students shared were distressing. Over the 17 years she taught, the mental health challenges that students discussed as troubling became more and more common and the problems they discussed relating to their mental and physical health grew in intensity. Simultaneously both author’s were watching the pressure on kids and the ugliness of competitive parenting play out in real time in their suburban towns. The hope is for parents to look in the mirror and see the ridiculousness of their own behavior. We can laugh at ourselves and own that this behavior is not helpful to anyone. Although said parents mean well and lovingly will do anything to make their child’s path easier and have them feel successful, the price the kids are paying is quite high and surely unintended. It also is not preparing them for life’s challenges when Mom and Dad can’t fix it.
Parents are blurring the lines between encouragement and competitiveness, assertiveness and aggression, common sense and a sense of entitlement. From the classroom to the soccer field; the dance studio to the beautifully tree-lined streets, no arena is left unscathed by parents behaving badly. Life in Swankville is a fairytale………gone a bit askew!
