I don’t waste my child’s time behind all these extra curricular activities.

The statement was direct and strong.

Craft ka to think hain, it helps sometimes in school projects. But rest is just time wasters. Sports, music, dance, chess, robotics, arts class and everything else is just useless and I don’t want to hamper my child’s productivity by enrolling him in any of these. – She continued further.

See, after all my child’s career is going to be built based on NEET, JEE, CAT, CMAT, NATA, PSC, and all sorts of competitive exams. No, I don’t want to force a career choice on my son but he would get admission in any course based on competitive exams only.

Also, there are not many career options in all these disciplines of sports to music. How many people can earn their livelihood being a singer or a hockey player? Very very very few.
And So…. I don’t make my kid’s time behind all these.

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A friend went on with these powerful arguments.

And I had to be polite as my harsh reactions would neither save the kid’s life nor would keep our relations healthy.

See dear – I started, I don’t want to conquer your thoughts but I have sympathy for your child so would like to tell you a few things.

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First of all, career and earning is not the only thing in life. The day your child starts earning money from his first job he would have to struggle with the rest of the issues of life. They can be managing personal finances, finding right friends to right partners, retaining a job, making the decisions, managing personal health, intern personal relations, and it can also be withstanding a brutal layoff.

These and several others are far more important challenges we need to prepare our children for in comparison to landing the first job.

Any idea what would happen when his job is taken away by a software and that was the last skill he had to earn with? Have you ever tried to prepare him to learn new things on the go?

Playing violin might not give him a new job but will keep him stress free, will help building new connections, build spirit to learn new things on the go and ultimately growing better in the same or a new career.

Be it robotics, football or calligraphy…. Staying active brings a lot of benefits.

• Fosters Holistic Development
• Develops Well-Rounded Individuals
• Helps in Stress Relief
• Brings Passion and Purpose in life
• Build Networking and Social Skills
• Inculcate Resilience and Perseverance
• Becomes Distinguishing Factor
• Most important, Keeps one’s emotional side alive.

These activities we call “extra curricular activities” not extra, they are in fact skills.

1) They themselves are skills. You develop skill to play football or making paintings.
2) Each of these activities teach a lot of other skills and abilities.

The list can be exhaustive for each of them but let me try to list just one important skill each of these build in a human.

• Chess: Strategy
• Football: Teamwork
• Classical Dance: Expression
• Yoga: Flexibility
• Robotics: Problem solving
• Programming: Logical Thinking
• Hockey: Hand-eye coordination
• Badminton: Speed
• Flute: Breath control
• Violin: Mindfulness
• Painting: Creativity
• Crafting: Attention to detail
• Clay work: Patience
• Writing: Communication
• Cooking: Time management
• Astronomy: Observation skills
• Athletics: Discipline
• Skatting: Balancing
• Dance: Fitness
• Sculpting: Persistence

And these are just few. Believe me, life is much beyond competitive exams. He will need all of these and much more to live a happy life.

All these skills are considered as important in interviews. Organizations believe one is disciplined enough the time she mentions her involvement in sports. One has high patience if she is a trained classical singer/player. Definitely, having an extra skill will give him/her +10 in interviews as well.

And you are not required to put him in all of these. Just 1-2 are enough. Like going to table tennis and singing classes and making robotics projects at home…. Good enough.

Overdoing is also harmful for a child’s development. Spending 1-3 hours outside for various of these activities is fair but beyond that the child will stop learning and skills will start paining. So be balanced.

And at last, put your kids into for their development, the skills and not the competitions and certificates. If they are great, they will win. But if they don’t win still they are winning the game of life. Let them Play, Create and perform!