And how are the little ones to cope with the same.
All of 4 decades now, I have largely been living in the capital region of India and in this time, I feel humanity is moving more than 10x speed of what it was couple of decades ago.
Content that took a few hours can be written within minutes, my now teenage students are consuming content at 1.5x, Swiggy has made redundant , that drive to Connaught Place, after 2 hours of planning and picking up friends from different locations on the way, to have our still favourite ice cream - the Hot Chocolate Fudge.
This is not mere nostalgia but deep curiosity, that where is this going and do we know what to with the extra time? Where are we investing this most precious commodity? Were we prepared for this rush?
As a teacher and founder of Big LittleHood, in many ways I see this speedometer being passed on to the next generation and I don’t find the young ready for it. Is this a mere inertia that we can’t seem to stop, or is there more thought behind this increased speed?
There are 3 kinds of rush that we see everyday:
Transitions always take time, whether for adults or children. We take time to soak up a new environment or move from one things to another. The younger we are, the more difficult the transitions are:
1) Drop in time: Our space enables parents to be around and work from the space, while the little ones can play.
Whether parents choose to drop off their child, or be at the space, there is super rush for children to run off and settle into this new space and leave the parents to their own space. Children get anxious and there are often tears..followed by a push and pull. Parents anyway end up spending 10-15 mins with the child to calm them down. Alternatively, if this rush ( even an internal feeling of rush) is settled with the parents, post 15-20 mins, children let the adults be and get busy with their own play. Security and reassurance leads to freedom.
2) Rush to go on the most difficult swing and climb the highest and to experience all that is available in the given time.
This one is just too astounding, while the child is still getting settled and discovering what all is around, accompanying adults with constant shouts of encouragement take them to the most difficult swing and challenge them. Again there are tears and push and pull, and the child resists the swing even more.
Worse still, sometime they just cling to the parent as they now feel the pressure and the fear.
Left to themselves, most of them by the end of the play hour or in a few visits are seen high on the swing, shouting their victory. The ones who were pushed too soon, take longer!
3) Pick up time: This rush is almost dangerous. As parents within a few minutes shout out “ I am leaving, you can stay here.” Repeated often, the child can feel very insecure and can have attachment issues.
The adults are ofcourse busy, juggling many things, many ambitions and responsibilities, and the young still need to be given the pace they can take. So what is the path? There are some tools that we work with, and share with our patrons here, but mostly the rush actually leads to more wasted time in anger, crying, push and pull or behavioural challenges. So the rush is definitely not the solution.
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