Stress: Are You Overloaded?

by Lindsay Meyers

Many of the world's greatest ideas were created in a daydream. When was the last time you had time to dream?

Most of the kids in this generation are being pressured and stressed out in every way shape and form. According to Dr. Alvin Rosenfeld (graduate of Cornell University and Harvard University Medical School) and Nicole Wise (award winning journalist who writes for such magazines as Redbook, Parents, The New York Times, Parenting, and others) teenagers are stressed out to the point where they are quickly becoming burnt out. Authors of a new book which will be published in February, 2000, entitled Hyper-Parenting: Are You Hurting Your Child By Trying Too Hard?, Dr. Rosenfeld and Ms. Wise believe that parents and our society place enormous pressures on kids. Today, more than ever before, there is this need to be the best at everything. As Dr. Rosenfeld says, ³Harvard is good, but everyone can¹t go to Harvard, and everyone can¹t be Tiger Woods!²

Some of the main reasons teens are stressed out today are because parents over-schedule their children in an effort to prepare them for a successful future. Unfortunately, kids never get to 'live in the moment.' This is evident in the fact that even young children are not playing in their backyards and having the opportunity to have a good time being kids. Back when there was still something called a childhood, you had time to play. Now, at seven or eight, you are preparing for the major leagues.

Because parents want their children to reach their potential even at a tender age, they start planning for things like college too early. Dr. Rosenfeld told TeenSpeak that in schools today, fifty percent of the teenagers that score above average and are good students, are being tutored!

Dr. Alvin Rosenfeld with Nicole Wise and staff member Danielle Bonilla

"Harvard is good, but everyone can't go to Harvard, and everyone can't be Tiger Woods!"