'So, are you still doing that slower thing?'
I got asked this question a few weeks ago and I thought I'd write something about where we're up to with the slowing down gig. A few months ago I wrote about feeling like a failure , because I had taken things out of the kid's lives and was anxious that they would feel left behind. But almost two years since I made the decision to radically cut back on our extracurricular schedule, I'm a total convert. And I say 'I' because Rowan had been quietly suggesting for years that it was crazy (but he's a patient man). A few months ago there was a TV documentary on the ABC about Carl Honore (author of 'In praise of slow' and 'Under Pressure: putting the child back in childhood'). He came to Australia and spent time with three busy Australian families. Some may have looked at the schedules of these families and thought 'wow, full-on'. I watched the show thinking 'that was totally me'. I've since read his book and it's ...