Closely related to the issue of overscheduling is that of ongoing pressure. Many parents talked about competitive schools and increasing amounts of homework. Ron Giddings, a white city planner from northern California, spoke about his six- and three-year-old children: “I think there’s a lot more pressure to achieve at school. Our kids are still young. I never had homework when I was in kindergarten or first grade. I think it’s difficult for some. . . . They should be playing and running around, you know, more than they do.” Jane Ferrara, a professional middle-class mother of three, tries her best to counteract the pressures emanating from the school her children attend and the Boston suburb in which they live. However, she acknowledged having competing interests. She chose her home precisely because it is in a school system that can offer her children a “really great” education. At the same time, she believes that the pressures within that system are hard on her children: “Stress worries me greatly. . . . Kids are under a lot of pressure, and there’s a lot of competition and a lot of competition to get into good colleges and that kind of thing.”
This pressure manifests itself in a range of activities including, and maybe even especially in, sports. Maria Ascoli, a white woman who is torn between professional middle-class aspirations and middle-class experiences, expressed particular concern that this competition is inappropriate for young children:
I think there’s a tremendous amount of pressure on kids as far as sports are concerned. The whole concept of sports has been kicked up a notch, so now you can’t just go out and play. . . . You have to specialize and choose— oftentimes when you’re eight to ten years old. And that’s all driven by parents. I think there’s a lot of pressure on kids today.
But, in spite of her misgivings, Maria does not hold her children back from participation in these activities.