Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.
Issue link: https://wellesleywestonmagazine.epubxp.com/i/256387
154 W e l l e s l e y W e s t o n M a g a z i n e | s p r i n g 2 0 1 4 P E T E R B A K E R S T U D I O S living with kids relationships parenting life lessons emotional growth teenage years growing up Are Our Adolescents Busy Enough? L I S A L E S L I E H E N D E R S O N writer family matters with our own calendars bursting at the seams, there never seems to be an opportune time to contemplate the busyness of our teenagers. Yet with registration for spring athletic programs, music lessons, SATs and ACTs, and summer camps just around the corner, perhaps now is the right time to initiate this important conversation. Perceptions of kids and busyness vary even within our own backyard. One middle school and high school teacher is unequivocal in her response: adolescents in our towns are much too busy; they come to school too tired to learn. A local mom, whose family immigrated to the US when she was quite young, believes that children in our towns could do more; most do not have responsibility for household chores or younger siblings as the children in her family did while her parents worked multiple jobs to make ends meet. A grandmother who raised her sons in Wellesley several decades ago marvels at the fantastic opportunities that are available to our children, but finds the commitment on behalf of the families to be stag- gering and the resulting involvement of parents in their children's lives to be excessive. 154-159_WWMa14_family matters_busy_v2_WellesleyWeston Magazine 2/2/14 12:57 PM Page 154