We are constantly told that an idle mind is a devil's workshop, but is it really? Have we taken this adage way too seriously? Is that why parents are going overboard in putting their children to all kinds of summer camps? Have children become too busy in too many activities that are so structured that they have forgotten to just be themselves, mischievous, troublesome, lovable and innocent?

In the last few days, newspapers have been full of advertisements for summer camps. So what do these summer camps do to your child? We guess we must in the same breath ask what it does for the parents. Summer camps are meant to keep the child busy doing some activity that the parents think the child enjoys or an activity that the parents think their child might have an aptitude for. Then, of course, children are sent to summer camps so the parents have nothing to worry about till they finish work at 5 pm.

One activity a day is great but now there are too many of them. When does a child sit and do nothing? There is great comfort in idleness; there are great moments of self - discovery while doing nothing. Doing nothing always produces something, and it does not have be “devil's” work all the time. These days parents take their kids for karate, tennis, football, cricket, drawing and as if all this wasn't enough, music class and in that there are sub - categories — instrumental or vocal, western instrument or Indian, string instrument or percussion… the list goes on. So when does a child in today's greedy India get to do nothing?

This whole summer camp fad is a recent phenomenon that has grown for three reasons. First, today's parents want to give their child a taste for everything. There is a new term for this — hyper-parenting — where a parent thinks by controlling all the child’s activities the child’s success will be guaranteed. They are in an over - enrichment mode for their kids. They don't want to miss out on an opportunity that their ward might actually become a Pankaj Advani, a Sachin Tendulkar, an A. R. Rehman, an Aamir Khan, a Sania Mirza……oh! that… no, not anymore. The fact is parents are desperate to test their child's aptitude for too many activities. And they want to know it in 2 months so that they can develop the child's skill. Great, but testing a child's aptitude for too many activities is only going to confuse you, confuse the child and the summer holiday only ends as a frustrating experience.

Then there is the need for over-achieving. Children's life today is too structured. There is no need for military school anymore. Home itself has become like a Sainik school. It is said that too much structured time causes depression in children and exposing children to extra - curricular activities too early can increase performance anxiety, unnecessary increased responsibility and anxiousness to please parents.

Yes indeed, if a child likes football he will enjoy the “pressures” that come with being a good football player but later in the day if you send him to guitar class, the “pressure” of being a good guitar player will become stressful for him, because he will not enjoy it. Worse, he cannot tell his parents he does not like it because they have warned him, “We have paid so much money for that camp. We have paid so much money for the guitar. We have told our friends that you will play for them….”

Another reason the summer camp fad in urban India is on the increase is the double income household: both the parents are working and the child needs to be kept busy. In that sense, summer holidays have become a bane in busy parents' life. But summer holidays are meant for the parents and children to spend time together. Taking a quick two - day trip to Ooty doesn't count; spending time together means being around each other, talking, fighting, eating and laughing without the pressures of home work, math test and the up - coming parent - teachers meeting.

Summer camps are becoming expensive as parents have to buy a cricket kit, graphite tennis racket, skates, football shoe etc. After all this, how much of these activities will the child remember or enjoy? Instead, isn't it better to involve the child in one activity and spend the rest of the day just relaxing, reading books, running around the house, making friends in the neighbourhood or testing your patience?

This is also a good time for urban children who are so busy like their parents to actually spend some time with the family. Stay with grand parents, go to family village and meet cousins?

Parents who structure their child's life and put them in too many activities are doing it in all good intention. They want the best for the child; they want to give a chance for the child to excel in anything they wish. But many a times it may not be the case. At a subconscious level, parents tend to live their missed chances through their children and it can have a devastating effect.

Let them be what they are, free - spirited. Too many activities, too much exposure to the world, too much exposure to technology will make them adolescents, by - passing completely the joys of childhood. Yes, at home they may be “little devils” but that's what parents will remember and cherish. Time spent with a child without structured activity will give lasting memories for a parent. Too many summer camps will leave a parent with no funny disaster stories to retell in their old age. Too many summer camps will only make a parent's wallet light, a camp director's pocket fat and a child's life miserable.