Status Updates From Let Them Be Kids: Adventure...

Let us release our kids’ performances and successes from our control. Let’s not look to them to validate our worth. Let’s prioritize the health of our families over the idols of success and activity. Let’s continue to remind our kids that there are things more important than being the best and cheer them on for things that matter, like character and kindness.

Tech-addicted kids don’t play well, they don’t attach to their families well, they are exposed to sexual images earlier, their reading suffers, their imagination is crippled. You absolutely must get this piece close to right or die trying. I don’t say this to overwhelm or discourage you but because I believe it is so crucial to modern parenting. We have to be different from everyone else here.

If you do not want to send your kid to preschool and prefer to keep him or her at home with a day rich in conversation and play - going to parks, making cookies, visiting the library, reading books, taking naps, mashing Play-Doh - I do not believe you are doing your child a disservice. On the contrary, your child is doing just precisely what a little three- or four-year-old should be doing: Playing.

I think one of the tragedies of our times is how everyone is segmented according to how old they are. Schools, churches, gyms - whenever people tend to gather, they’re grouped according to age. This is to everyone’s detriment.
Childhood is made richer by doing life with those who are not exactly the same age - those babies and old people.

I agree with the chapter “The Gift of Being Uncool”.

But even now, as the mother - the keeper of the home, the playdate maker, the activity chooser, the controller of the remote, the setter of the passwords, and the owner of the devices - I am the biggest influence in my children’s lives. I can use this influence in a powerful way.

Could not finish. Way too much Jesus.