Fulfillment?

I was just playing on facebook (I know, shocker, right?) and was struck by an acquaintance's "status update." She has several young children, and her status today is: "Skateboarding class, art class, voice lessons, dance class, hopefully some academics, and then play rehearsal. A very fulfilling day!" I gotta be honest, I totally disagree with this particular person and I think cramming this many activities into young children's lives is insane. When do they get a chance to hang out and play with their siblings, imagining and exploring in their own environment? When do they get to just chill and read a book, or draw on their own, without having someone "instruct" them in the "proper" way to draw a picture? Is there anytime in the day when these kids get to be, dare I say it, bored? I remember lots of long afternoons when we didn't have anything going on where I felt a little bored and didn't know what to do. But instead of loading us into the car to cart us off to one more (expensive) extracurricular activity, my mom taught us how to play games, or encouraged us to read books, or gave us a project to help her with in the kitchen or garden. We were taught to imagine that our dolls were our friends and could help entertain us, and they did! We watched TV some, but that was definitely not our main source of entertainment all afternoon. When did our definition of fulfillment become jam-packing our schedules or our kid's schedules so there is absolutely zero downtime in life? My fear (and research is supporting this) is that kids who grow up being entertained 100% of the time by external activities are taught that life should entertain them. And last I checked this isn't exactly realistic--or those who go through life with this mentality often search in horribly destructive places for this entertainment. I know I'm not a parent yet, so part of me doesn't feel like I have a right to comment, but I have been a kid. And as a kid, I was incredibly thankful that I had parents who helped me learn to entertain myself and as such I think I have a pretty solid sense of what I think was meant to be fulfilling in life. It isn't being entertained or spending exorbitant amounts of money to have someone else entertain me, it's finding joy in the little things--in reading a book, having a conversation with someone, watching a fun movie in the evenings, seeing Jesus in the people around us, or learning to simply be alone.

Sure, enrolling kids in a class is great--but for goodness sake, help them pick one at a time! If gymnastics is their choice right now, then maybe they don't also play soccer and the piano this year, maybe they wait to try that until they decide they are done with gymnastics! I look at our youth group kids these days and I am astounded and completely overwhelmed with the number of things these kids are trying to involve themselves in on top of all the AP and honors classes they can take at once. It's the third week of school and kids are falling asleep in youth group, the high school sophomores are living on instant coffee and sleeping 4 hours a night, and the looks on their faces are heartbreaking! They are so tired and so overwhelmed and at some point an adult in their lives needs to stand up and say that's enough! This isn't healthy! This isn't helping anyone set up healthy patterns in life and if they don't learn that now they certainly aren't going to in college!

May we be people who think deeply about where we spend our time, where we ask our children to spend their time, and what it is that truly brings fulfillment in our lives. Because if we don't, when Jesus comes back I'm afraid he'll find a generation of walking zombies, too tired to recognize him.