21 CENTURY st
PARENTING Preparing Kids for the Future by Meredith Montgomery
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oday’s children have more opportunities to change the world than ever before. Teenagers are organizing global activism movements, LEGO lovers are mastering robotics and young entrepreneurs are launching successful businesses before they’re old enough to drive. But for Mom and Dad, this fast-paced, technology-driven childhood looks drastically different from their own. To help kids thrive, parents must learn to mindfully embrace today’s modern advances without losing sight of timeless virtues and skills such as kindness, creativity and critical thinking.
Finding Balance After-school hours used to be filled with outdoor free play in which kids independently developed their natural capabilities as self-learners and creative problemsolvers. The Children & Nature Network has reported that just 6 percent of children ages 9 to 13 play outside on their own. Instead, stress and anxiety are on the rise in our competitive culture as many kids attempt to balance heavy homework loads with an overflowing schedule of extracurricular activities. With the ability to connect to the world at our fingertips, Thomas Murray, director of innovation for Future Ready Schools, in Washington, D.C., notes that devices can also disconnect us from those right next to us. “It’s a massive struggle to find balance and mindfulness, but it’s vitally important. How often do we see an AP [advanced placement] kid that is falling apart emotionally? As parents, we need to recognize that kids have a lot on their plate—more than ever before.” Salt Lake City-based Courtney Carver, author of Soulful Simplicity: How Living with Less Can Lead to So Much 14
More, worries that parents are creating résumés for a life their children probably don’t want. On her BeMoreWithLess.com website, she focuses on living with less clutter, busyness and stress to simplify life and d i s c ove r w h at really matters. “It’s challenging to maintain close connections when we’re over whelmed with what’s in our inbox, or on Instagram or what the kids are looking at online,” she says. On her own journey to practical minimalism, she gained a greater sense of pres ence wit h her daughter. “When you can pay atten-
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tion to a conversation and not feel distracted and antsy, especially with young kids, that is everything,” says Carver.
Managing Technology The ubiquity of digital devices is a defining difference between today’s youth and that of their elders, making it difficult for parents to relate and know how to set boundaries. As senior parenting editor at nonprofit Common Sense Media, Caroline Knorr helps parents make sense of what’s going on in their kids’ media lives. “We can think of media as a ‘super peer’: When children are consuming it, they’re looking for cues on how to behave and what’s cool and what’s normal.” Parents need to be the intermediary so they can counterbalance the external messages with their own family’s values.