PRESSURE!


Is there more pressure on us kids these days? Do we have more and more work to do each day? Are we set to a higher standard than our parents were? Is more expected of us? Are we pressured into so many different after school activities that we can’t stand going to them anymore? Are our lives having the fun sucked out of them because of all the things we have to do? Why is that?
Lately I have noticed that kids, especially teenagers, have more to do than we used to. We are getting to the age when we will have to start becoming more and more responsible. We are going to have jobs, homework, Honor’s classes (at least I will have tons of those next year!), after school activities, and other time commitments. And of course we will have a social life! Plus we are going to have to have car payments, gas, taxes, and other things involving money! Do we have more to do than our parents did?
It seems like teens these days are pushed into so many different activities, they are just wasting away. There is so much pressure to get into a good school and get a good job and other things of that sort that they hardly have time to live their lives. I have been thinking about this a lot because with High School just around the corner, I have been having to make a lot of tough decisions that will affect me greatly next year. One of those decisions involves a dance class that I take. In that class, there is so much pressure to be great and do better than everyone else that it is beginning to lose its fun. The class has become something I hate going to!
My cousins are perfect examples of this! They are required to be in violin classes, piano classes, acting classes, Honor’s classes, and that whole deal! They used to love going to all of their different lessons and all of their different activities because it was fun! But it all became so much and it all piled up at once. When it started losing its fun, they began to fail at all the things they did. Finally they just told their mom to stop putting them in all these things and now they are fine!
Are our parents trying to live their childhoods through us? We are in a generation of stage moms. They are even making television shows about stage moms. They are putting so much pressure on their children to do so many things. It is great to experience a lot of things in life but it’s another thing to wear yourself out while you are still young! Do not let your parents rule your life. They might not even know they are hurting you when in reality, they are hurting you terribly! If we let our parents to rule our lives like that and push us into so many different things, we are just hurting ourselves!