We open with a couple of weird news stories...but today we are talking about evaluating family schedule and activities. We listened to a great talk by Jen Wilkin on FamilyLife Today regarding family activities and overscheduling. Jen says the number one issue that children are struggling with today is depression and anxiety due to exhaustion and overscheduling. She talks about how Christian families should be different from the world in this area and how we can evaluate what our family priorities should be from a Biblical worldview.
As parents, we have the idea that our children need to have a broad range of opportunities and experiences in order to be "well-rounded adults. We don't want them to miss out, but does this mindset come from fear of missing out? Are we making decisions about how our family spends time because we fear they won't be fully developed adults without their activities?
We also talk about what role social media plays in our decision making. People don't post about the things their kids are missing out on or share their failures regularly. This can factor into our decision making because we see what all of the other families around us are doing well, but we're missing the full picture.
We talk about the things we're actually missing out on when our kids' activities consume your family time. We miss time to sit and talk and build relationships with each other. We miss family dinner. We miss the flexibility to be hospitable and build relationships with other families.
Mark encourages us to be careful about how we speak to others about our children. Do we only mention their successes in activities and academics? That can easily create a performance mindset in which our children believe their value comes from what they do rather than who they are.
We encourage you to sit down and discuss your vision and priorities for your family. Our children are eternal spiritual beings and we need to keep that in mind when we choose which activities to be involved in. How are you stewarding your most precious assets?