(Empathic Parenting) (Michele Borba) 10 Ways to Raise Caring Kids and Letting Them Play This Summer: stressing the empathy right out of our kids,

Kids playing in the summer is an essential and these are some tips.

 

America’s kids are more self-absorbed than ever. If their constant gaze into the selfie camera isn’t proof enough, plenty of statistics and news stories point to a fall in empathy, a rise in narcissism, and an epidemic of bullying and cruelty. You want your kids to stop with the “me me me” and start thinking “we”.

MORE: 10 Tips to Traveling With Your Baby

 

“Too many parents are stressing the empathy right out of our kids,” says parenting expert Michele Borba, author of Unselfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World.

 

“We do it from a place of good intentions—in a hypercompetitive world we are desperate to give our kids an edge—but all the pressure and all the structured activities are causing more harm than we know.” Three-days-a-week taekwondo, sleepaway chess camp, and a full slate of summer college courses—too much stress hurts kids’ mental health.

 

BY JOSCELYN RAMOS