September may be the most difficult month of the year. People return home from vacation, trying to get back to the chaotic routine of their daily lives and get into their stride, after a careless summer. In the meantime, parents and their children are busy buying the necessary school supplies for the academic year to come, signing up for multiple activities that they choose among the huge variety offered, such as foreign languages, music schools and sports. Have we ever considered about the reasons why parents and consequently, their children, suffer from an overwhelming schedule from the beginning of the school year until the end?
 

The majority of parents, in an effort to offer their children the optimum education, knowledge and experience, tend to encourage them to participate in various extracurricular activities that have to do with education, sports or music. Another group of parents, taking into consideration their own desires dated back to their own childhood, push their children to take up the activities they liked during those days. What is though, the impact of this hectic daily program on children and their psychosynthesis?
 

Children participating in different extracurricular activities acquire supplement knowledge, while they have the opportunity to socialize as part of a team and as a result, to increase their communicational skills and team spirit. Despite the multiple benefits that the physical and spiritual exercise offers children, as well as their interaction with peers, an overwhelming daily program can have a negative effect on a child’s health condition and school performance. Taking into account the above, we should mention that some of the aforementioned children suffer from a constant sentiment of “denial” towards any activity, which will have long- term negative consequences on the development of their personality.
 

Having read the above, parents may be puzzled over the way they can achieve the balance between their children’s activities and life. The solution to the problem is really simple and we can find it by looking inwards. Let’s take a trip back in time, embrace our inner child and reminisce; what did we want and what did we do when we were children? Exploring our childhood memories, we will observe scenes, where we used to leisurely play with our peers, spend time with our family and enjoy our childness. How can that be feasible, when today, life is so demanding and its rhythms tend to be more intense? We can always create time to dedicate to our family, teach our children, get taught by them and together, broaden our horizons and create new memories.
 

To sum up, I would like to put emphasis on the importance of the dialogue among family members. Parents ought to ask their children what they want, listen to them carefully and eventually, decide together as entity. In the aftermath of the article, I would like to quote one of Khalil Gibran’s poems from the book The Profet, which illustrates the role of a parent in their children’s lives.

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On Children
 

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not
even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of infinite, and He bends you with
His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is
stable.
 

*First published in the newspaper 30 th Update.

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