Can You Teach Kids About Balance?
By Rebeldad Brian Reid
Last week, Leslie asked about the utility of work-life balance classes for all of us, an idea that seemed to be relatively warmly received. But it got me thinking: If classroom education about balance is good at age 30 or 40 or 50, what should we be teaching our high school kids about it? Our sixth graders? Kindergartners?
There seem to be a couple of keys to the whole work-life thing. One is organization. It's nearly impossible to maintain a rich home and work routine when things are a mess. And the second is compromise -- the ladder-climbing workaholics invariably sacrifice personal or family time to get that corner office.
There's no trick to emphasizing organization with kids (though getting them organized is a whole other matter), but I have a hard time teaching the idea of compromise. I can't see the benefit of warning my kids about the maddening reality that it is nearly impossible to be the world's authority in your chosen field while maintaining a robust home life.
My kids are still at the age where I want them to believe that they really succeed at everything. Heck, I was even piqued earlier this week when I real Laura Sessions Stepp's piece in the Health section, suggesting that perhaps learning to do it all was less important for girls than "constructing a well-balanced life."
"Constructing a well-balanced life" hardly seems like a worthwhile goal for the teenage years (or younger), when everything ought to seem possible. Maybe a discussion of work-life balance isn't ripe until the 20s, when most of us start learning about life the hard way.
Right now, I'm opting for the path of least resistance with my kids, trying to teach balance by example (both good and bad). But that hardly seems like the best approach. How have some of you more veteran parents balanced the desire to tell your children they can do anything with the reality that doing it all is close to impossible?
Brian Reid writes about parenting and work-family balance. You can read his blog at rebeldad.com.
By Brian Reid |
January 17, 2008; 7:00 AM ET
| Category:
Conflicts
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