Exicted we knocked down some activities!?

Question

Okay, I posted a question earlier about how many activties your kids are in. Mine are in WAY too many (thanks to my husband). I've decided that we are going to cut down on them if he likes it or not.

SUMMER (April-August): All the kids take swimming (team, lessons OR mommy-and-me class) April-August. It is held every Saturday at 11:00. An instructor comes to my pool and teaches them. For my oldest, she has swim team down at the YMCA pool every Saturday mornings. Meets are throughout the week.

WINTER (December-March): They are all enrolled in either gymnastics or tumbling. I talked to them and they all enjoy that.

Now I let them pick if they wanted to do 1 more activity (VERY OPTIONAL) they could choose one in fall or spring. For my youngest (1) we obviously don't need a 2nd activity. The rest choose one.

FALL (September-October): Looks like we have 3 who will be playing soccer (13, 6, and 3). The oldest is in some advanced team (but thankfully her furthest game is only 30 minutes away). The middle is on a regular rec team, which is very nice in town games ONCE a weekend. The youngest is just in classes that teach soccer skills. Once every Friday afternoon. Nothing too bad.

SPRING (April-June): My 4 year old daughter REALLY wanted to do dance, so we enrolled her in the spring lessons (I refuse to have another winter activity).

Answer 1

If I'm reading this right, your kids now have one activity per season each? That's certainly totally reasonable, as long as the activities aren't outrageously time-consuming.  My kids get to choose two activities a week each, though each activity is only once a week for an hour or less.  We try to schedule things so that one parent can be with the kids who don't have the activity or the other kids could be playing at friends' houses or something (so not everyone gets dragged along to everyone else's soccer practice).  I wouldn't want one of my kids not to experience the same things they'd experience if they had fewer siblings, so we make an effort to figure out the logistics.  It's true that it comes out to a lot of things for us (as parents) to drive back and forth to, but it's only two hours a week (or less) of activities for each child.

Answer 2

i think its great that they all love vbeing out getting exercise and fresh air almost all year round. as long as they are happy with it all and its not stumping yer finances then there should be no reason to think its too much. loads of kids out there who are stuck in front of computers day an day out. so you should enjoy it urself too.  

Answer 3

If they want to do all that, then it's all good. Although I do KIND OF think it's nearly crossing the line. But they also have school to tend after. As long as it doesn't interfere with school, homework and school marks, it should be fine. =)

Answer 4

It sounds pretty typical of every other family I know.  But as they get older, their interests will diverge -- they may not all want to play soccer, for example.  Usually, in our family, the kids had two activities until they got to high school -- Scouts and soccer, or Scouts and dancing, etc., and always neighborhood summer swim league and tennis leagues. Their Scout troops kept them hopping with a variety of different activities, so it was nice. Once they got to high school, the afterschool activities and sports starting taking on a whole new life.  

Answer 5

Okay....

No offence but I didn't even read that. It's good to get some physical excercise, but you should probably give them a break....

The Fall schedule doesn't look too terrible for your 6 and 3 year old, but your 13 year old needs to recooperate during the winter, so I might take her out of the gymnastics, or have classes once weekly. Swimming in the summer sounds enjoyable, and I would definetely keep them in that because it's not only great excercise, but it also will cool them off now they don't complain about the heat.

Honestly, it's a little too much for you. And I don't know if you're just bragging about how amazing your kids are, but I only see the 4 year old mentioned once in there...