Think you're having a tough day? Try being a kindergartner. No. Really. Kindergartners are the latest victims of stress. So much stress, in fact, that a school in Germany has now set up spa services for their kindergarten classes.
Just picture it: Kids getting massages. Kids getting pedicures. Kids getting ... now wait just a gosh darn minute here. I want to be a kindergartner!
No. Really. I don't care about the massages (although if you're offering ...) for these little kids.
I would give my engagement ring to go back to the days when the heaviest thing weighing on my mind was how to cut out the picture of Peter Rabbit without going over the lines. Yeah, I get that kindergarten is more stressful these days when it was when we were kiddos. Did you know they actually have homework? I didn't until my kid hit the first year of public school, and proceeded to spend afternoons fresh off the bus putting pencil to paper.
But still. I have a mortgage. She had to circle things that started with "Sh." Even the bullies on the playground (and ooooh, boy, don't get me started on those buttheads) aren't as mean as the guy who will call my house if I don't sign my John Hancock to the check that's due to the bank this month.
I'm not going to hide my head in the sand and pretend that there aren't mental health issues that little kids deal with. The rates of depression in little kids are skyrocketing, and I think it has more to do with parents waking up and getting their kids treatment than it does with actual increases in problems.
But I'm rather glad to note that my kid is just fine and dandy without spa treatments thankyouverymuch. Because if she can't get through the stress of a few worksheets, how is she ever going to handle cursive?
What do you think of giving kindergartners spa treatments?
Image by Jeanne Sager