Back to school

The holidays are over and the children are back to school. There is a routine in the house and the life for us mothers is more structured and disciplined now. What a relief! …But relief for whom ? Definitely not for the children. Stress is not the prerogative of adults alone. Children average or above average lead a very stressful life now a days. Not only academics, they are expected to excel in everything they put their hands into be it theatre, dance, sports, drawing. The day we enroll our child for tennis, we expect him/her to play US Open one day. Though we tell ourselves we don’t pressurize our children but the undue anxiety by mothers shows it all and they understand our expectations from our body language.

There is a constant struggle in their minds to do well because doing well is the sign of getting accepted. An average child finds it very difficult to cope up with the competition. If they are unable to reach the bar created for them, it leads to stress. Studies show that most of the children are with average intelligence, the percentage of children with below and above average intelligence is very less.

I know a young mother whose son has just joined first grade. The child doesn’t like to write and writes very slowly in the class; he is unable to finish the class work in the class. The young mother is so worried about his future as if his slow writing may lead to his failure in life. Her undue anxiety does reflect in her body language