This week, we kicked off our first Purposeful Parenting session of the year! Middle School Counselor Kara Friedman led an interactive discussion with Middle School parents that fit well with our well-being focus of the year at MICDS: finding balance.
As a starting point to the discussion, attendees read the Washington Post article, “The ‘over-scheduled’ child: Is being busy so bad?” The group then spoke about how some children benefit from being scheduled while others need downtime in order to rejuvenate. They talked about how screen time can be an appropriate use of relaxation time if it’s limited and how being bored can be a good thing; it gives children time to be creative and choose how they want to spend their time.
While speaking of prioritizing one’s time, they discussed how they can help children learn to make choices and prioritize what is important to them since they can’t and shouldn’t do everything. Also, they agreed that parents need to model healthy lifestyles for children, especially as it pertains to phone usage, exercise, scheduling and more.
As the entire MICDS community focuses on well-being this school year, we hope you join our Middle School parents in striving for a healthy balance.