The level of anxiety for children these days is to be on the rise, and with good reason. It seems that even before a child learns to walk and talk, they are already given more than they can chew by their parents who want them to always be number one.
As Time noted, today's parents are anxious to get their children started in life: six-month-olds can be enrolled in a "singing" class to increase vocabulary to prepare their little geniuses for Kindergarten. After that, the children are then sent to elementary, middle and high school, where they get more extra-curricular activities shoved upon them. This is supposed to be a way to get them ready for college, which will in turn help them get ready for a cutthroat real world.
It's exhausting not only for the parents looking out for their children, but more so for the child himself, thus increasing anxiety, depression, and suicide rates are becoming more and more of a conversation. Pushing a child to do well in school may be a form of parenting, but the problem is that it doesn't necessarily mean that the child is loved, nor does it make for good parenting.
As noted, unconditional love does not measure a child's achievements and neither does it ensure his place in the top 10% of his graduating class. If a parent pushes the child too hard, it gives him the message that he is only as good and as worthy of love as the bragging rights that he can give his parents.
As Psych Central noted, pushing children tends to backfire, as ironically, it is where things like substance abuse, anxiety, depression, psychosomatic illness, among other things, begin. Pushing a kid too far also tends to backfire: if it's any indication, the highly successful students in Palo Alto have "suicide clusters."
So how could parents raise a child? Time Magazine says back off. Let children be children and love them for who they are, and not the awards they can win. Say no when necessary, because "no" is an important word when raising a child.
