Off with the masks!

I wonder so often why we think we have to have it all together. In my opinion this premise leads to a world filled with fakers, people who wear masks in order to hide - out of fear that their authentic selves would not, in fact could not, be loved and accepted. How sad is that?

I have had the honor of working with students grades 6-12 since the fall of 1989 and in that time the pressure to perform, to be "together" has increased dramatically. It has led to generations of children on medications for depression, ADD, ADHD, and anxiety disorders. Young people today operate under so many false assumptions that I never even worried about. How have we adults let that happen? Is our drive to be successful and "together" so strong that we push our kids to be mini-adults before they are even remotely ready.

I see kids with hours of homework in elementary school. What is that all about? What happened to recess and eating paste and games of red rover? I see kids with 4 and 5 after school activities per week...so that everyday they are booked solid until dinnertime. The high school students in our school district get picked up for school at 6:30 in the morning!!! So if they want to shower and dress and eat breakfast they have to be up at 5:30. That is all kinds of CRAZY.

Maybe adults rationalize it by saying we are preparing them for the world. Well I say YUCK to that. Who wants that world? Who wants a world in which they are perpetually exhausted, cannot concentrate, and feel pushed to the maximum all of the time? We aren't preparing them for anything good, and we need to stop fooling ourselves.

In our family we have made a conscious choice to step OUT of the rat race. We won't overprogram our kids. They can choose 1 activity per season. We won't kill ourselves for a paycheck, it isn't worth it to us. We value family time and we value simplicity. To be honest, I would like to get rid of half of our stuff...and maybe I will begin working on that. Family is of utmost importance to us...and that goes far beyond blood relations.

Sometimes living off the grid sounds mighty appealing. Maybe today we can all take off our masks for a moment and see the sunshine and smell the fresh air. Maybe together we can breathe a little easier and realize that having it all together isn't as great as it seems. Wish me luck and I'll do the same for you. Peace.