My children and a growing conqueror

I was just thinking about the way we apportion our time in life in terms of a landscape analogy: some parts of our lives are in the "family" region, some in "work" region etc. We usually think about a 'balanced' life as one where each of these important regions is given it's appropriate territory - that is, time is allocated proportionately to the value we ascribe to each region.

Of late, I find that my children's lives are getting increasingly imbalanced. One particular region of their lives is expanding very aggressively, obviously in the expense of others. It is a rather sneaky region. We parents are usually very friendly and supportive of the existence of this region in their lives. In fact, most of the time, especially in the initial stages we want that region to expand in their lives because we think it is good for them. We get worried if the region shrinks. When that happens, we sound the alarm, remind them of it's importance, and even enlist the help of others and specialists in the hope of enlarging it's territory.

But, before you know it, its tentacles will reach to other regions which you hold dear with your children. It does so in explicit and less explicit ways. Explicitly, it just fill up the children's time with more and more of it's activities, so much so that they have no time with family. It disrupts all aspects of family life - family mealtimes, weekend outings, bonding games, even family vacation plans.

The scarier thing is - it's conquest does not lie merely in it's power over the children when they are physically in it's territory. Even when the children are outside it's physical boundaries, and, say, within the home, it continues to exert it's authority. Much of my children's time at home now is spent in doing work given by this region. Thus, very often, while the children are bodily in the "family" region, their minds continue to do the bidding of this other region. A common occurrence in my family is this exclamation when we are halfway on our family's activity, "oh! I forgot I haven finished the work of the other region!"

This region is expanding fast in my children. Traditionally, it stays pretty much in it's physical location and it respects other worthy regions such as "family" and "rest". These days, it doesn't anymore. The problem is: it may not even realize it's own ambition, because hardly anyone talks about it or realise it. Perpetrators of this region do not apologize for it's expansion because many are either unaware of it's own aggression or justifies it by stating it's merits, or retorts,"the parents and the children want it this way."

If lest unchecked, this region will consume almost all of my children's lives. It will render them grossly imbalanced and ultimately uneducated. The name of this region? School.