When you're just plain tired of being a kid

By Kristen Pind

Is it possible for a 5-year-old to get burned out? I try really hard not to overschedule my kids because I feel like kids need time to play and use their imaginations, but this last week was a busy one for us. I know I can get burned out -- I try to do too many things at once and eventually burn myself out -- but then again, I'm a 30-year-old mother of two who works full time, helps out at church, runs my kids to various places, and has a husband who works a crazy schedule 80 percent of the time.

Can a 5-year-old get burnout? Can kids do too much at age 5? I ask this because my teenager, I mean my 5-year-old, had a complete meltdown last week and has been unable to get out of the funk. We had vacation Bible school that flowed into the Fourth of July that flowed into a busy week of summer care and Hapkido. Birthday parties, VBS, fireworks, swimming and family are apparently too much for Cooper to handle.

We had meltdown after meltdown after meltdown. We had meltdowns in the morning after getting out of bed, we had them on the drive to summer care, we had them in the grocery store, at church, in the park. I'm not sure there is a place in Cape Girardeau County we did not have a meltdown.

After this morning's meltdown, the "I hate everything and I just want you to leave me alone" cry, this time about Hapkido practice, I asked Cooper to calm down and tell me what was wrong.

He said, "Mom, I'm just tired of being a kid. Can you please just leave me alone so I can be an adult and sleep?"

After laughing -- because, let's face it, I get a whole lot less sleep now than when I was 5 -- I told him not to rush being a grown-up and that aging won't fix his problem. He tearfully told me he didn't want to go to Hapkido and he didn't want to participate in the tournament on Saturday. After taking a deep breath, I explained that mommy and daddy already paid for those things and he couldn't back out now, and he had an obligation to the rest of the class to attend. I then explained this was his first tournament and he didn't know if he liked it or not because he had never tried before.

After a couple more foot stomps, we came to a stalemate. He will try his best this Saturday, but if he doesn't like it, we will take a Hapkido break and see where he is in the fall. This isn't what I would choose. I feel a bit let down after all the work I -- I mean, he -- has put into learning this skill, but I understand where he is coming from.

I don't want to force my kid to do an activity that he doesn't want to do. I don't want to be that parent who lives their child's life for them. I had a good, active childhood, and I don't need to relive it. I want Cooper to live and do things he enjoys, and if after two years that isn't Hapkido anymore, then so be it.

As he skipped to the van, having forgotten that 10 minutes ago he was mad, he said, "Hey, mom, maybe I'd like to try soccer."

And it begins again...