Its come to this: Doctors are now being told to prescribe play.
The American Academy of Pediatrics details the urgency of the matter ina policy statement.
There is a play deficit in this country, and we know it, dont we?
Weve learned that playenhances brain structure, helps kidspractice empathyandmakes them more creative and innovative.
And yet its strangely difficult to crack some of the structure of childrens lives.
To back off, it takes some real willpower and planning.
Here are some tips for unscheduling your child in todays overscheduled world.
The goal here is simply to protect your kids downtime.
You might set a rule for your kids such as one sport or activity per season.
(Ive decided to put my daughter in another voice class, which she absolutely loves.)
You have to find the right balance for your family.
Prepare for the Suck
Realize that its sometimes hard to give kids downtime.
On weekends, the first thing my daughter asks when she wakes up is Where are we going today?
When I tell her nowhere, she whines and declares that isso boring.
And then parent-friends will start texting me: What are you up to today?
Wanna bring the kids to library story time?
Or princess ballet class?
Or go watch a movie?And I often want to say Yes!
It would be easy to strap my kid into the car and do any one of those things.
But its good to sometimes say no.
Put white space on your calendar and prepare for some protests.
Then find something to do and let your kids do the same.
Playgrounds are barren as every other kid is off at chess or tae kwon do at 3:30 PM.
You cansign up to find nearby families.
Its true that unscheduling kids takes a lot more work than it did years ago.
But after doing it, you may very well find that your family will be less stressed and happier.
And plus, its the doctors orders.
