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<p>But what you are doing is saying ALL early to college student lack a full childhood, and it is this that is faulty reasoning.</p>
<p>Childhood is merely defined as the period of life between infancy and puberty, so there is no way to sacrifice it unless one dies before puberty, so people who say, “But they had no childhood” are clearly in error - at least you wrote FULL childhood.</p>
<p>What you mean, I suppose, by “full childhood” (and correct me if I am wrong) is the romanticized American version of childhood as a time with no responsibilities or cares. But this is rarely the case for most any child…many children face deaths in the family, poverty, illness, war, divorce, homelessness, alcoholic parents, sexual molestation, and all sorts of other woes far more concerning (seems from the research I’ve read to date) than early college. What is “normal” for one child’s early life is hardly the experience for most children unless it is things like growing taller, gaining weight (and even there, not all kids do - many starve to death), learning to use a toilet, etc.</p>
<p>Frankly, I don’t think a childhood without responsibility is good for kids, and research backs me up this (kids with no chores, for example, have a higher rate of feeling “empty” and depressed than those who contribute in some way to the running of the household, family farm, whatever). Research also shows that children who never have any “hard knocks” are more inclined to have issues when problems come knocking later in life.</p>
<p>I happen to believe a balance of responsibilities and carefree time is best and from as soon as a kid is able to be of some assistance (like our son was matching socks as a toddler and setting the table starting at age 2, and he was <em>happy</em> to be able to help, not groaning about it being a chore, despite - or perhaps thanks to - not being paid for helping).</p>
<p>As for “full childhoods”, I feel our son has had one of the fullest childhoods around and MANY children (his age and younger and older) note that they are jealous of the life our son has had so far (so have some adults, for that matter). He got to spend a week playing at the beach each year from age 1 to 8 (where my husband’s father never saw an ocean till our son’s first birthday when we all went to the ocean for the day) and got other beach vacations in addition to the traditional annual beach vacation with extended family. He got to play in the sandbox and swing on swings, he had pillow fights with friends his age during slumber parties, he played video games both on his own and with friends, he went bowling with friends, he went to dances and movies with friends, he blew plenty of bubbles and built sandcastles, he went to lots of amusement parks (most recently just last month), he watched plenty of cartoons, he spent a lot of time just running around his room in his style of free play, he learned about music and art (and indeed burned his own CDs and sold some at a performance he gave at age 9 and had his own photography and fractal art business from 12 to 15, in addition to viewing art in museums in various countries and hearing live music of all sorts and being in a handchime/handbell choir, gamelan, battle of the bands, etc.), he was on a crew team and played racquetball, he acted in a kabuki play, he traveled to more countries than most people have visited before they die, etc.</p>
<p>He also had an unusual childhood in some ways. He started doing internships at age 9 (with all expenses for the suite, flights not just for the two of us but also visits from his father, rental car, etc. paid for by the company)…but he also played in the pool with other kids every night after dinner if the weather was good (and played board games and went to movies and bowling and such with friends made at the pool just as he did with friends back home - we are still in touch with some of them). He started college at 9 (but also got to continue doing things with kids his own age or thereabouts, like magic club and tap dance classes and handchime choir and “play dates”). He gave talks across the country and in Germany (but the talks typically took just 10 to 30 minutes of the trip and the rest of the time was spent exploring the city in which he spoke and other cities or countries nearby). He had his own business at age 12 and two businesses by age 14 and paid his own sales and income taxes, and had a portfolio that as of 2003 figures (the last I could find), allowed him to have a higher net worth than about 40% of the American population (and that was without being paid but a small amount for his first two talks as most of his income has come from his consulting business that he had for one year - the photo and fractal art income all went toward paying for study abroad costs and not his savings, though he did use the fact that the sales were earned income to be able to use his other savings to fund his first Roth IRA at age 12; had he gone for the gigs that pay $10K like another early to college kid, he’d probably be the envy of most Americans financially).</p>
<p>I question I don’t think anyone here has directly asked but usually does is “Why rush?” Because the sooner you start exploring careers, the sooner you can find one you like (you are not, contrary to some people’s belief, locked into any career at any age, other than maybe parent once you have a child, if you happen to see parenthood as a “career”), and the more time you also have to have multiple careers (our son has noted that he feels he will have contributed the best he likely will within 10 years in a given career once finished with his education and plans to delve into new careers at least once every 10 years). Because the sooner you start college, the more time you have to take courses in all sorts of topics beyond the typical high school fare, and the less likely you are to have to balance having a family with getting a graduate degree or professional degree. Because the sooner you start saving money, the sooner you can retire, and the wealthier you can retire even retiring earlier. Because life isn’t a race, but nor is long life a certainty and “Why wait” to “live as you like” when you could die tomorrow (no matter what your age or health today)?</p>
<p>Our son actually does NOT feel like he’s had a “normal childhood” (which bugs me as we parents like to feel our kids have had that, and frankly, I think that some parents go out of their way to provide their children a “normal childhood” not to match the child’s desires or needs, but their own), but he also notes that he’s never <em>wanted</em> a “normal childhood” as he’s wanted to get “out in the world” and explore. And it meant his leaving us long before we would have liked. But it <em>his</em> life and he should do with it as <em>he</em> sees best, so long as we don’t feel he is taking too large of risks for his health or hurting others.</p>
<p>Swatparent, if your child happened to be 6’ tall at age 10, would you keep the child in clothes that are the size of most 10-year-olds just so the child could look like the other children? Do you even think that the child wouldn’t still stand out as different? Of course not, as it wouldn’t be a fit for her and she wouldn’t “look normal” just because the clothes were the same size as the other children. Similarly, you can keep a kid who could do college work many years before the typical age for being in college in with chronological peers, but even saying the kid could “blend”, would that really be in the child’s best interest? </p>
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<p>I suspect different programs work differently. However, a student likely won’t need a school to be active in sports. Most counties have sports (soccer, basketball, etc.) groups for those in the county, no matter where they are in school.</p>
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<p>I agree that academics are not everything, and that physical exercise is important for everyone (including adults), but not that being on a sports team is ever so important. I was on a sports team in high school, but not in college as I had no interest in being on one in college (I started college at age 17, not due to acceleration but a late birthday, and finished at 20, and by around 11th grade, I already wasn’t all too into sports and only joined the team I did as a friend asked me to join and I figured it might be fun). Our son has played sports games with graduate students (beach soccer a few times, frisbee something or other, tennis, squash, etc.) and taken sailing lessons at MIT (where students can check out boats for free after passing the lessons), but hasn’t had any interest in joining a formal sports team. This is not unusual for college students of a regular age, and it’s rather <em>uncommon</em> for graduate students to be on a sports team, I think, even though some are. But Swatparent, if being on a sports team is all so important to you, are YOU on one today? If not, when were you last on one? My husband was on a sports team till our son was 2 and we moved to another state for a year, and I credit him for staying on a team for some long, but again, I think that is more the exception than the rule.</p>