Can the Innocent Have Stress?

By the “Innocent” I mean our children.  I see every day that my grandchildren are being pushed faster and faster to lose their innocence.  What I mean by that is that their parents are proud of the fact that their children are in school at an early age.  Of course this helps with the day care costs but I fear for the little ones who are losing their innocence earlier and earlier.

I was just told that my kindergarten grandson is already at a second grade level and my preschool granddaughter can already write her name.  I can just imagine the stress that puts on those little souls.  Of course their older second grade sister is also ahead of her peers.  Nothing wrong with being proud of their intelligence but as I say, I am concerned that all this achievement will lead to early stress.

As these children grow in age, they are also being taught to be overachievers as well and stress will start to creep in in conflict with innocence.  We teach them to speak clearly and teach them how to speak, we teach them colors and eventually teach them the concept of time and distance while all the time they want to be out playing with their friends or toys.  I learned that a nine year old has no concept of time or distance but that they can count and I had to think in terms of the number of exits on the freeway, or the number of stop lights or turns to a destination.  This can become rather challenging and if one is incorrect, it is imperative to remember the correct number the next time.  This is stress on me, but I’m more concerned about the stress on these little ones.

I guess more important is that we make time to take them out to do less stessful things as often as possible.  Being a grandparent gives me the luxury to be able to do relaxing or even exciting things with them.  Since I am concerned with the increasing level of stress for them then it is my responsibility to see that they have some stress relief as often as I possibly can.

And I love being a granddad and taking my grandchildren to do things even if they aren’t always exotic.  I can’t think of anything more stress relieving for me than doing things with my grandchildren.  I think it keeps me young - at least I don’t think I look as old as my siblings who don’t have as many grandchildren as I do.

It is also important that we adults learn to regain the innocence of these children and take advantage of valuable stress free situations.  Similar to the way children see the magic and wonder in everything, we should also stop to smell the roses and take time out in our lives to relax or even to play hard as long as it takes our minds off what could lead to stress.

I know these little ones don’t miss a thing - I think they are closer to nature because of their stature but they neve complain about being stressed and are always full of questions and awe and wonder.  It really is stress relieving to look at the world through the eyes of children.

We live in the same world they do but we just don’t see the same things they do nor do we appreciate the little things as we go our merry way trying to conquer the dragons in our lives.  One way to relieve the stress is to regain the innocence I see in these little children.

For adult Stress Management click here.