America the Busy...(Featuring "Everything")

Here is something that a friend of mine who is a children's pastor wrote. It's called "EVERYTHING" and it is a very thought provoking piece on what we are teaching our children about excess and what challenges we face as parents to combat this new American lifestyle.

http://thedivinedance.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/everything/

I had been feeling these things but was not able to articulate it in such a clever way. As a mom, in America, I have felt overwhelmed at the pressures that are set before me. I can not keep up already, and my children are only 3 and 5. I see my friends twirling about, driving (literally) themselves crazy. It seems like in my world the women don't have any time, they are stressed out, they are overloaded, and most of them are stay-at-home moms. But, their kids are in sports, their kids are in drama, their kids are everywhere all in the name of creating a good well rounded childhood for them. I know women who sit in carpool six times a day, for three different children. I know so many women who are at three different ballfields a day, every day but Wednesday, all in the name of recreation.

I am not judging these families. In many ways I think this kind of extreme activity snuck up on America over the last ten years. It seems to be getting more and more difficult to say no to this lifestyle. So much fear about leaving our kids alone, not supporting them, and being the only parent NOT at the game. It is overwhelming, but how do we stop it? My biggest complaint about this lifestyle, is no one I know really likes it. They are all so tired. I am tired just watching. So what is it for? Why all the busyness? Why? What are we teaching our kids, but little more than they are the center of the universe? How does that translate into what we are teaching them about Christ and faith? Faith is about humility, and the fact that we do not deserve what we have been given. Are we distorting what sacrificial love looks like? Are they forming an expectation that they SHOULD be sacrificed for? Do they understand the purpose of it, or does it become another expectation?

In one generation I think there will be a world full of grown ups who were raised as children who were the center of their parent's universe. Will they even feel like they need a Saviour? Are we raising narcissists? Maybe that's going too far, maybe. I do think they will be frustrated, because they will be competing with others who were raised this same way. It will be difficult for them to function in a job, in a marriage, anywhere they are not the center of the universe. We are already a selfish nation. "We want what we want and we want it now." Is this way of life going to translate into complete destruction of community? There is nothing wrong with sports, or drama, or ballet, or anything really. I wonder though, what are we teaching our kids about their place in the world when we are allowing their interests and skills to become the focus of the entire family schedule. We need to consider the message we are sending them, because they are forming their identities based on what we tell them, and by what we do for them. I know this will make some people feel like I am judging and condemning them. I hope not. My hope is that you will consider why... Why we are doing all of this? Why are we killing ourselves?... Who is benefiting from it? What will our future as America look like if we keep this up.

I considered not writing about this, but then, I am to a fault compelled to say what I think. If you hate it, I am sorry.