Finding balance necessary within families

Families are more stressed out than they were 10 or 20 years ago.

Scottsdale psychologist, Dr. Bettina Lehnert told News/Talk 92.3 KTAR’s Karie & Chuck that more parents are pushing their kids to get involved in activities.

Lehnert said there is multiple reasons parents do this.

“Sometimes we’re trying to beef up their resumes for college or sometimes we’re reacting to our childhood and trying to make up for things we didn’t get.”

She said like anything else, we need to find moderation and balance in what we do.

“Kids need downtime for multiple reasons,” she said. “They need to be on their own and learn to entertain themselves. When we have them over scheduled like that, they become dependent on what’s the next thing on the schedule.”

We tend to want to raise all our kids the same way, but they’re not.

“Just because they’re not being treated the same way doesn’t mean it’s not fair,” Lehnert said.

The the art of parenting is about knowing that every child is different and going to respond to different things.