Nine. That’s how many fewer hours kids today have compared with thirty years ago. Most of their free time gets ‘invested’ in extracurricular activities like sports, music classes, self-defence lessons, and tutoring.

 

Ironically, sports and music classes haven’t done much to enhance children’s creativity or increase their energy. For instance, the increase in music lessons has corresponded with a drop in creativity. In a study titled The Creativity Crisis, Dr. Kyung Hee Kim noted that “over the last twenty years, children have become less emotionally expressive, less energetic, less talkative and verbally expressive, less humorous, less imaginative, less unconventional, less lively and passionate, less perceptive, less apt to connect seemingly irrelevant things, less synthesizing, and less likely to see things from a different angle.” The rise of the organized sport has coincided with increased obesity in children. Getting ‘trained’ at sports means children get less freedom to move around.

 

Kids spend most of their remaining time under “house arrest” in front of a screen – either video games or smartphones and tabs. Most parents do this to keep their kids safe from external predators like germs, unclean air, and dirty surroundings. But they don’t notice the secret ‘killer’ within the house – lethargy, which eventually leads to obesity. To add to that, screen time stifles children’s mental growth. According to a study, each hour of babies between age eight to sixteen months who watch “educational videos” correlated with them learning six to eight fewer words than their unwired peers. This shows that we’re not making infant geniuses. On the contrary, we’re impeding their verbal and mental development.

 

All this highlights two major aspects. It’s difficult for kids to discover and express their creativity today. And parenting has become far tougher than in yesteryear. The biggest contributors to both these aspects are the lack of outdoor activities for children and the lack of attention that parents pay to what their kids really want to do.

 

Creating the right atmosphere to nurture kids’ passion is one of the key roles of a parent. Kids don’t need to develop the same passions as their parents. But some parents harbour aspirations to make their child achieve what they couldn’t. In the process, they tie down the child. Or by being too loving, they over-pamper their children and make them powerless in the real world.

 

The key is to strike the right balance by letting kids discover things for themselves. “Kids blossom when the environment is right for them,” said [name and designation]. “Instead of trying too hard to keep them safe, parents should allow children to explore the great outdoors. Otherwise, children develop a restricted view of the world similar to that of their parents, and can’t build perspectives of their own.”

 

The more time children spend in outdoor activities the less screen time they want. Playing with their peers also helps them build emotional intelligence. They learn to think for themselves and become independent, ready to break out of their shells like a butterfly from its cocoon.

 

It’s also important for parents to engage with their kids in the latter’s activities. This helps parents understand which areas the child gravitates towards, and indicates what the child could be passionate about.

 

Navin Todi Co-Founder, MeltWater suggests, “parents put their smartphones away and dedicate certain hours for their children each day. According to him, this goes a long way not only in identifying a child’s passion but also in the parents strengthening their emotional bond with the child.”

 

“The ideal parents raise their children such that the kids don’t need the parent. It sounds ironic, but it’s what true love is about,” Navin Todi said. “Such a parent creates an atmosphere which fuels intelligence, creativity and most importantly, love. Warren Buffett says that the best thing he got from his father, a US Congressman, is unconditional love.”

 

In this digital age, it has become more important than ever to encourage children to step outside and channelize their energy. With skills becoming obsolete each day in the knowledge era, kids must also learn to build skills relevant to today’s times. These skills can only be developed when kids pursue their passion and get the necessary love and support from their parents.