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Raising Kids: Are we on the Right Track?

I met my friend last week. Her son is 4 yr old and she is a career woman. Yes, I won't say working mom, I would put it as a career woman. She has kept her work life balance with the help of her parents and a lot of maids. The kid goes for 3 hours to the playschool and she meets him late evening, when she spends some so called "quality time" with him.
Like every mom, she feels she needs to give the very best to her kid and look into his all round development. These are the measures she adopted:
Being a single child, she wanted him to socialize, so she fixed up his 2 hours in a day care.
She wanted him to be a bit religious, so she fixed up his hour at a coaching that teaches the chants and prayers.
Like any other kid, he's not very keen in studying (which is actually not a big deal at playschool), but she is worried of his school grade and put him on to tutions for an hour.
All this didn't seem enough for the worried mom, so she engaged him on to extra curricular activities for 3 hours on Saturdays.
Well, I was shocked at all this. And, I was disgusted at the way she was justifying her decisions. I couldn't imagine a 4 year old running from one coaching to another training all the week round. Does the little soul even realize what he was into? Does he know the reason to do all this?
He's not the only one. My neighbor's seven year old is a Brown belt in Karate and  performed her Arangetram  in Bharatnatyam! So she is mastering classical dance and martial arts at the same time, along with a hectic school routine.
It is true that kids adapt to routine easily and are fast learners, but as parents, we should decide on how far to stretch their patience. They have to grow up and face a big competitive world ahead. That is the time they will need to be on their toes. For this they need a calm, peaceful childhood. If we engage them at this stage so fiercely, they will already be exhausted by the time they face the world. If we put ourselves in their shoes, how does it feel to run around at others whims? Should we not wait for them to grow a little and express what their interests are?
I sincerely think, it is time for parents to introspect today.

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