It is perfectly natural that we want our kids to do well. Parents desire the very best for their children. And in the last hundred years the possibilities for child development have certainly grown a lot. But do we really want to create Super Kids? By Super Kids in mean, kids who are ahead in their development in every sense.

We see more of them every day. Children who have their whole day planned out for them. With each segment optimized to stimulate their development. But is that really healthy? We also see more and more children that are burned out. As a child expert I believe there are three reasons why we shouldn’t try to speed up every aspect of child development at once.

First, children do not have an unlimited supply of energy. When they focus a lot of energy in one part of their development other parts usually slow down. So a child that is focused on learning social skills might not be doing so well in their academic achievements for a while. In the end social skills will help to attain better academic achievements. But just like with any task, it is better to not to do too many things at the same time. Development is hard work. There need to be times when a child doesn’t have to do anything.

Second, we do not have to decide exactly how our children have to develop. Every child is born with a near perfect system that allows them to develop on their own. We don’t decide for our plants how they should grow and develop. We just trust that with love and nurturing, they will. Our children who are so much more sophisticated than a mere plant certainly have the capacity to develop on their own. In fact, their innate system that allows them to develop usually works a lot better than what any parent, or even child expert can come up with. And this is really a good thing if you think about it. Parents who want to control every aspect of their child’s development, do not allow the innate system that every child has, to work. In trying to attain Super Kids, they might actually do more harm then good.

Third, if parenting is focused on creating Super Kids, a child will never be good enough. Because there is always something he or she has not learned. Being a kid is not about growing up. We do it to children all the time when we ask “What do you want to become when you grow up?” As if a child isn’t somebody already. How much love and nurture do children experience if being good enough is always in the next moment and never in the now? So instead of trying to create Super Kids, we can just realize that they are already pretty super and appreciate them for it.

Of course the innate ability of children to develop is not perfect and there is a lot you can do to make development easier for them. Because of our complex society, there are some moments in child development where you can offer some assistance. you may comment on this article below.

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