Preserving Childhood

I'm reading this excellent book at the moment (don't let the title put you off, it isn't religious). So much of what the author says resonates with the approach I'm trying to take to parenting, and life in general.

After spending far too many hours tonight listening to the Children's Schools and Families bill being discussed in the House of Lords, I wanted to share, here, a couple of quotes from the book, which I think are really relevant to what's going on.
The emphasis in bold is my own.

"... in our efforts to make each moment "count", we seem to have lost the knack of appreciating the ordinary... we do too much and savour too little. We mistake activity for happiness, and so we stuff our children's days with activities, and their heads with information when we ought to be feeding their souls instead..."


"... only by stopping long enough to observe our surroundings can we bring form and meaning to our lives and make the small adjustments needed to stay on course.
Our children need this kind of pause, too. Regular rest for the spirit is as necessary for their healthy growth as sleep, fresh air and good food..."

"... children need time that is utterly their own - time to take up residence in their own lives, time to dream through an afternoon, time to play with the kids next door, time to wake up to their own pleasures. Above all, they need time when we adults aren't calling the shots..."

"Children need their privacy just as we adults do. In the secret places of childhood, the soul drinks deeply, is refreshed, and flourishes..."

I said I wasn't going to get political on this blog, and I'm sticking by that decision. But quite often, I think many grown-ups have forgotten what it was like to be a child. I strongly believe that those people are not qualified to be making decisions about how our children spend their own precious childhoods.