Meredith Vieira: Resist mom pressure

In Tuesday’s Metro, TODAY’s Meredith Vieira explained how she handles mom peer pressure, specifically keeping up with all the activities and jam-packed schedules parents keep for their kids. She describes today’s mounting parental pressure leading to “over-programmed” children.

“On one level I would say how ridiculous, with all this overscheduling, but deep down inside I would feel like am I inadequate, as a parent, not exposing my kids to all those great things out there? Am I cheating them? Will I be perceived as the bad parent?”

Meredith goes on to say that children experience enough day-to-day stress, so why program the little down time they actually have? That maybe, it has more to do with mom peer pressure then the children’s actual needs:

“There are a lot of Type A personalities out there. You want your kids to have a leg up. It’s a competitive world.”

What do you think? Are we unnecessarily stressing out our children – and ourselves? And how do you keep yourself immune to competitive moms?