Summer Vacation?

What Kids Are Doing With Their Summer Vacations These Days

By
Relationship Advice Expert April Masini

I have two sons and encourage them to relax and be a little lazy in the summertime. After all, they work so hard during the year I figure they need some serious rest and relaxation time. However, all of their friends seem to be on the go all summer long, many of them actually in summer classes even though they get perfectly good grades and don't seem to need extra help. Their parents ask me if my kids are in summer school and when I say no, they look at me like I'm crazy and imply that my kids will never get into college. Is it normal for kids today to be in summer school all summer long?

Sincerely,

Kids Need Rest

Dear Kids Need Rest,

It's true, that there is a trend of students doing more summer homework and competitive league sports, but what's underlying this trend is really interesting.

Parents push kids more than ever to do more, better, faster. Childhood is lost, and lazy summers where kids made some money at a job and did some community swimming and hung out with friends are long gone. The pressure teens feel to achieve has led them to take college courses and AP courses in high school that are so rigorous, the summer prior to the September starting classes are expected to be spent doing course work in preparation for the course!

Educational competition has hit a new high starting in pre-school and grinding up through high school -- and in all of these years parents now commonly hire academic career counselors to help their children get into pre-school, elementary school, high school, and college -- at several thousand dollars a pop. And you can bet that parents are caught up in the frenzy of getting their child into the best school -- and forgetting what is really best for their child as an individual.

It won't be until parents say no to their minor children that the children will start saying no, and this trend will slow down and even reverse. But with all the pressure and the lack of self esteem and leadership that pervades, that reverse in the trend is probably some time coming.

April Masini -- nicknamed "the new millennium's Dear Abby" by the media, is author of the best-selling books Date Out Of Your League and Think & Date Like A Man, the two (just released) step-by-step dating and relationship manuals, Ideas for a Fun Date and Romantic Date Ideas, and the critically acclaimed dating and relationship online magazine www.AskApril.com.

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