The Book Bag

There are only so many hours in a day. You work 40-50 hours a week and that leaves very little time for you let alone time for the important conversations that need to be had. In between dropping off the kids at football practice, soccer practice, gymnastics, volleyball, etc, there’s the grocery shopping, the dry cleaning and of course cooking and laundry!
And in the middle of everything sits the book bag. Their school bag is a sacred place that holds the books that will be the key to your child’s future. Now drift back to when you where your children’s age. Did you have the same issues at school to contend with? If not, what issues are different? How are they different?
Let’s look at some of the issues at different age levels. School is genuinely a friendly environment. So for those children, their main concern would be their daily schoolwork and the subject at hand. The only thing that might change is if the curriculum became harder, or if there were a new teacher or a new school that would cause some adjusting. For some children the issues of teasing and bullying are being addressed in schools by the faculty, so they have those issues to contend with. Later on, peer pressure with drugs and alcohol become an issue. There is also an issue of teen pregnancy that gets introduced in the school environment, not to mention the rate of teenage suicide.
So when you see your child’s book bag sitting on the counter and your son/daughter comes into the room, take those five extra minutes in between doing the laundry and cooking and ask how things are going in their world. Their world is a lot bigger than just making sure that their homework gets done, or that Suzy and Beth are fighting now because of Jill.
There are two things that change the scenario of a child’s future, falling grades and absenteeism.
There are two things that can change the scenario of a child’s future - parental involvement and resources (counseling to find out why).
Things have changed from long ago. Everything us adults were introduced to is being introduced to children at a much younger age and the dangers are much higher. There is no stability now like there used to be, and believe me; our younger generation is feeling it. Besides all of the worries and stresses of daily school life, children of today worry about the stability of their parents’ marriage and the stability of their jobs as well. Our school drills today reach beyond the typical fire and tornado drills.
So, maybe the next time you’re out, stop for an ice cream cone and do some digging. Sometimes they get so overwhelmed that they find it hard to open up and talk. Life is so much more than just buying the latest gadget, and who knows the way kids confide in kids, you may just be saving another childs' life.