Families need to reconnect
The age of technology and the constant “rat race” of spinning one’s wheels has worn us out. These days more and more people are feeling anxious, lonely and exhausted. Parents are grinding long hours to make ends meet while kids spend after school hours supervised in daycare centers until their parents come home from work.
The hours are long and family members assemble at the end of the day beat with so little time left in the day to unwind. Crankiness, feeling overwhelmed, mood swings, shattered nerves all surface. What about the need for down time, doing homework and enjoying a freshly-cooked homemade meal? Parents are taxing their kids to the limit in enrolling them in many extracurricular activities to keep them busy. Kids’ brains are on overdrive.
What about giving a child downtime to play and be a kid? Mothers require the flexibility to stay home and work from home so that kids can come straight home after school. Our social system needs a drastic overhaul because our kids are not OK.
Anxiety in kids has reached an alltime high and kids are scared and unwilling to go to school because they feel overwhelmed. They have lost their spirit for wanting to learn and excel. These days kids are allowed to get by with dismal work, sloppiness and “kinda” is good enough. Remember kids no longer are getting marked grades in school so kids take the approach of just doing the minimum to get by.
The negative effects of the COVID pandemic are apparent. These days so many kids lack the ability to focus, pay attention and apply logic and knowledge to their studies. The excuse and reason I hear as a teacher is that the child suffers from attention deficit. There is also a huge dilemma with kids not being able to commit and persevere on a long term basis in pursuing something meaningful.
“Quitting” is becoming a common norm these days when a child needs to concentrate and put the effort and time into working hard. Parents quite readily pull them out saying that it is stressful and the child suffers from anxiety issues.
People in general are living well beyond their means with yards, garages and driveways strewn with clutter spilling over onto city roads and sidewalks.
Just look around how many vehicles per house along with RVs and boats litter our urban and rural landscapes. It is all materialistic stuff!
Social media and global affairs overwhelm us with dismal news. The warning signals are everywhere and people need to take the time to pause and create order out of chaos.
It’s time for change and it starts by learning how to make do with less and focus on what really matters in life.
Decluttering, restructuring of schedules and returning to “back to the basics” are key factors in stabilizing a household and bringing family back collectively to the dinner table with no TV, screentime, and iphones on.
All family members need to join at the dinner table to eat together, express thankfulness for the day and talk to each other face to face.
The solution starts with the family core at the center for change. The home environment needs to be a harmonious, pleasant, happy atmosphere where families schedule quality home time for being together connected.
Nurturing traditional old values and norms need to return in order to create normalcy.
Our society is in dire need of a “rebirth” and enlightenment.