Parent Mistakes – For Everything There is a Season, a Time for Every Activity Under Heaven.

Why do I make so many mistakes as a father? It seems that the things I want to do, I don’t do them, and that which I don’t want to do, I end up doing! And you thought you were the only parent that thought this way, didn’t you? I’ve said it once and I will say it again, parents do some really dumb things. We’ve gone over two of the seven worst things a parents can do. Are you ready for number three?

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This week we will take a hard look at parenting as we continue to discuss the 7 worst things parents do. Today we bring up the fact that pushing your child into too many activities is one of the 7 worst things parents do.

3. Push Your Child Into Too Many Activities

“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NLT)

That’s not a verse from Proverbs, but Solomon wrote it. The book of Ecclesiastes needs to be investigated by a lot of people in our culture who are consumed with materialism, and trying to “have it all” and trying to pass this same twisted thinking on to their kids. Solomon learned the hard way that true satisfaction in life doesn’t come from “having it all” anyway – and he should know – he was the richest man in the world in his day and it didn’t buy him happiness.

Pushy Mistakes

So many kids today have very little or no free time. They are pushed to excel and exceed and be involved in so many activities that they grow up as imbalanced as their parents are. Overextended and worked to death they’re less well adjusted and frankly less happy. They’re lonely, emotionally neglected and burnt out at young ages.

We need balance here and that’s exactly what the Bible is calling for. There’s a time for every activity under heaven. There’s a time for sports and there’s also a time for the family to sit down to supper together at night. Do you realize that families sitting down to supper together has gone the way of the dinosaur? That’s not good, folks! Research has shown time and again that healthy “set” times of communication between parents and children builds lifelong bonds that build character and confidence in children as they mature into adulthood!

Family Mistakes

So slow down and don’t push your children to their limits. Make time to be together as a family! Play with them, talk to them and build your relationship with them face to face! Here is a sobering thought; How well do you know your children? Do you know your coworkers better than you know your own children? Shame on you if you know your coworker’s favorite color but you don’t know your own kid’s favorite one! How about their favorite food? Favorite activity? What do they dislike? I know you spend 6, 8 or more hours with your coworkers every day you work… How much time do you spend with those little ones of yours? Do you schedule time with them?

You see… it’s not about pushing more and more activities on them so they can stay busy or excel at stuff….. It’s about spending time with them.

Don’t miss next week’s episode when we bring up the fourth item in my list of the 7 worst things parents do. And that is when parents try to be their child’s best friend.