Article.

Over the summer I was helping Adam with one of his homework assignments by researching some articles for a paper he needed to write. I found an article titled:
TOO MUCH, TOO SOON, TOO OFTEN : Raising children in America - Brief Article
Commonweal, Oct 20, 2000 by JO McGOWAN.
I read it fully (it's not long) and thought it was great. In the meantime Adam's classes have ended and summer has continued to move on but I keep thinking of this article.

Today as I sat in Subway I was again reminded of the article. The emphasis it has is on raising children in America and offers 3 topics to think on. It's not extremely well written but has some really thought provoking items to chew on.

The 3 topics and a quote I like from each topic are:
Too many choices - "Having too many choices...inflates our sense of self-importance."

Portions that are too large - "The idea that more (much more) is better persuades children that they are entitled to whatever they desire. But isn't the secret to treats limiting them?"

Too many distractions - "The average American can do all of these things simultaneously: drive, talk on the phone, drink coffee, eat a bagel, listen to music, and smoke a cigarette. In India, most people do one thing at a time. Maybe they could do more, but they don't. This gives their lives a stillness, a mindfulness, rarely seen in the United States...[C]hildren, who are, after all, the world's original conservatives..Much as we may hate to admit it, to a baby there is nothing boring about the same old mother or father putting her to bed every night, over and over in exactly the same way."

And .. Some quotes for free:

"The distractions which are an inherent part of life in America make it seem that we are never accomplishing all that we can. There is always some other activity we could add to the one we are engaged in to make it more productive and efficient."

"Fewer choices, smaller sizes, one or two things at a time. "