A Day in the Life of Your School-Aged Child

            They wake from the soundest of sleep startled by the sound of their alarm clocks or your voice calling them for the fourth or fifth time.  Groggy and still half asleep, they shuffle from their beds to the bathroom stubbing their toe on something they should have put away, forcing them to hop on one foot the remainder of the way.  They shower in water containing who knows what all kind of chemicals and they shower and they shower. 

Now, late for the bus they go running full speed down the stairs, grab two Pop-tarts and with a 40-pound bag of books strapped across their backs, they make a mad dash out of the house to their bus stop.  At school all day, they sit in uncomfortable, hard-as-rock chairs with their heads bent over their books (whether they are reading or sleeping).  When they take a break from the more than six hours of bending their necks in the opposite direction of their natural curve, they are in a constant state of stress.  Are they going to pass all of their classes?  Who are they going to the dance with?  When will their face clear up?  What if they don’t get into college?  Why won’t their parents leave them alone?  Why won’t their parents pay more attention to them?  And this is a good- to best-case scenario.  We all know children who have other serious personal struggles--with their identity, with handicaps, with peer pressure.     

After school, they challenge themselves physically with sports of all sorts—football, soccer, tennis, golf, track, wrestling, basketball, baseball, volleyball.  Unfortunately, often times this activity is fueled solely by the one lousy piece of pizza they had for lunch or maybe a cheeseburger and fries or sometimes nothing at all!  It’s possible that their after school activity isn’t physical maybe it’s musical, artistic, or academic.  Still, the stress of a long, challenging day on little fuel takes its toll. 

By the time they arrive back at home in the evening they are often exhausted not to mention cranky.  This may result in arguments with other family members, which is upsetting to everyone.  Dinner often is fast-food or if it is homemade they fall asleep on the couch while it is being prepared with their bodies contorted in some unbelievable position that they’re too tired to even notice.  After dinner, it’s homework time or probably more likely TV time or computer time where they sit lifeless for another several hours.  Or maybe they sit and talk on their cell phone for hours on end with their girlfriends or boyfriends with their heads tilted over stressing the delicate neck musculature.  Finally, you yell to them saying it’s getting late and they better get ready for bed (mostly because you’re exhausted at this point and you just don’t want to deal with it anymore).  At this point they are pretty much ready to go again since they power napped if not on the couch in the car or the bus on the way home).

With all the physical, chemical, and emotional stress your child packs into the typical day—do you really think their spines are going unaffected?  Is it even possible to undergo such numerous and various stresses and not have every part of their body be affected?  No, it is not.  The problem is the nerve system directs and organizes every other system and every function of the body.  If you want your child to learn and grow and play and be all they can and should be, you simply must have their spines checked regularly.  Take your child to see their chiropractor this week and every week.  Make the time to fit it in.  It’s vitally important.