Bigger, Better, Faster, More

Both my kids are currently in swim lessons, after passing the previous level. My daughter is the youngest one in her class & I suspect will have to redo this level once she matures more physically. She's only 21 months old so it's no big deal since this level has an age range of 20 to 30 months. With my son, last Thursday was the halfway point for his level & the instructor had a sheet, sort of like a report card, outlining the areas that have been mastered and what still needs to be developed. There are 20 items, 8 of which he is still working on. (As an aside, we put them in swim lessons more as a fun thing to do, with the the hopeful side effect of them learning some safety and practical water skills to better enjoy going swimming).

According to the instructor, my son will probably have to redo this level. She went on to describe what my son was having trouble with still. I was cool with that, since the age range is also broad and kids mature at different rates, although my son could do things last week that he couldn't the week before. It's like a light bulb goes on & he can suddenly "just do" something. What I do worry about is that she discussed this with me in front of my son. Now, I'm not a coddler when it comes to parenting but I try to avoid ego damaging. He seemed disappointed following the discussion, so we talked it over. He's only 4 and I don't want him to already feel like he needs to compete.

This brings me to my main point, of which the swim lesson situation is but one example: are we as a society propelling our kids into high pressure stressful situations earlier and earlier in an effort to mold them into mini-adults? Kindergarten is now a full day program. Is that because we want to capitalize on the immense learning potential of kids that age, or is it more convenient to have teachers watch our kids instead of paying for day-care? There are Baby Einstein DVD's, books & flash cards for the 0 to 18 month set. Are we supposed to regiment our babies with learning tools when we should just be focusing on incidental learning and how about cuddling them? Most toys are battery operated contraptions, advertised to increase learning in some way. What happened to playing with a doll or reading a book for fun?

Could this all be a symptom of a fast-paced, instant gratification society? Why wait till 8 years old what you can force-feed at 5 years? I'm not sure that I like the course that is advocated for kids these days.