Stressed NYC kids get help from life coaches

Life coaches have become the go-to fad for quarter to mid-life crises sufferers over the last decade, but who says you have to be a grown-up to need a little extra guidance?

Apparently, a growing number of children in NYC are finding themselves distraught over all the responsibilities they’re faced with including demanding homework assignments from posh private schools and vying for the lead role in community theater productions.

As DNAinfo reports, parents worried about their children’s inability to work towards goals, can recruit a life coach, including one from the 91st Street Academy. There, children can find support and guidance for problems like school troubles, balancing extracurriculars and concentration issues — you know, stuff parents don’t want to deal with.

The DNAinfo piece tells the story of a troubled third-grader who simply could not stop misplacing his books and jacket. Life coaching, according to his parents, was the answer.

So what’s the difference, anyway, between a life coach and your run-of-the-mill shrink? According to 91st Street Academy, “Counseling looks backwards at past issues and events while coaching looks forward towards setting steps and goals for the future.”

Well since kids don’t have a past that spans more than a decade and a half or so, life coaching is perfect for them. For about $300 a month, a life coach will work with a kid once a week for three hours.

Now maybe it’s because we didn’t grow up in the city, but if our biggest problems were skipping class or misplacing things, we didn’t get sent to a life coach to sort it all out.