Health & Pregnancy

Spying on Your kids

What Brought Us to This?

The romanticized idea of an American childhood used to mean pickup ball games, putting on an impromptu show in the back yard, and unscheduled time to decipher cloud shapes and daydream. Ask grownups today for images of an ideal childhood, and they'll describe Tom Sawyer whitewashing a fence or Huck Finn drifting down the Mississippi.

Tomorrow's adults are more likely to recall back-to-back appointments for Little League, drama club, soccer camp, dance recitals, and foreign language drills.

"In general, parents are highly stressed today, more worried about their jobs," Brush says. "As everybody gets busier we have less contact with our kids. We're not at home as much, and the kids, too, are out doing other things."

Parents sometimes don't know how to relate to their children's activities, Pochyly says.

"You may tune out your child when they're talking about current music," he says. "Then, when you want to know how they're handling challenges like sex and drugs, the connection is missing. Pay attention when they talk about subjects that don't interest you very much, so they will talk with you about the important stuff."-->