Parents of school-age children: how busy?

Question

How many activities do your kids do? How many nights of the week are they busy and are they busy on weekends too?

I want mine to try everything and not miss out, but I also want them to relax at home. It's hard to find the balance, do you think the same?

Answer 1

My kids are 12,14 and 17...all three have been in Organized Sports since Grade School, my eldest who is now a Senior (grade 12) in High-School has been in Cheerleading for 8 years with all of the Practices and Games that entails, my Youngest is in 8th grade she has been in Cheer for 5 years as well as Girls Softball 2 years...Practices and games through-out the school year...my 14 year old son has  played 2 years Base-Ball,2 years Soccer,6 years of Football,6 years of Wrestling,and 1 year of Basketball...so you can guess what my schedule is like already...LOL...COmbine that with daily chores and Homework and we all have a VERY FULL schedule!

I believe Sports builds Character,Stability and Focus...just don't allow your children to become burned-out...there is time for relaxing at home, you just have to find that time..it's not easy but it is doable~~Aloha and Blessings~~

Answer 2

My kids are allowed 1 activity after/during school and it usually is something offered by the school.  Schoolwork is more important than anything else and I don't consider not being involved in too many things missing out at all.    Kids should not have a full schedule...it's sad that many parents are go, go, go all the time with their children.

Answer 3

Its easy unless they play sports. That gets in the way of everything else. Its either do sports or do everything else. Fortunately, my kids do karate so they have a set schedule and can do several other things too.

Answer 4

My children are on travel sports teams so there is practice two afternoons a week.  My older one has one game on the weekend; my younger one two games.  Additionally both kids have one more after school activity.  My days are basically 8am to 10pm with few moments to relax.

Then there is homework, birthday parties, etc.

Answer 5

I have 4 kids.  2 girls and 2 boys.  I always let them start each sport the first year.  (t-ball, soccer, basketball, football, cub scouts, etc....softball, basketball, cheerleading, dance, ballet, volleyball etc...)  I always make them finish a year.  After that when sign ups come the next year it is up to them if they want to play.  This way they can have the full array without my prejudices.  I had one piano prodigy (who would have known since no one plays the piano in my family and we had to go out and buy a baby grand), one baketball, one baseball and my youngest is a little princess.  She loves everything dance.  Asked her if she wanted to start softball (t-ball) and she looked at me and said, "Mom!  I'm a dancer.  What if I hurt my ankle?"  She was 4!  So, I made an exception and she didn't start softball.  But I have learned that kids change so much that you have to let them be who they are and pursue interest that may even be out of your realm of interest.  My rule was/is no more than two activities at a time.  Believe me with three youngsters and working full time my evenings are pretty much taken up with this.  It is sometimes a juggle but they are only young once.  Oh, one more rule.  They have to keep their grades A's and I'll accept a B on occassion if they want to stay with activities.  Grades come first.  I am always laid back and not the type of parent where my kids have to be the best at everything.  One son was great at baseball but other one had fun and that's all that counts.  Both very good at basketball but not best on the team.  That's ok too.  I am laid back and realistic.  Not every kid can be the star player or dancer.  Sometimes my kids are sometimes they're not.  The parents that push their kids to perfection are the one's with stressed out kids and kids that do not enjoy the sports or dance or lessons at all.  Good luck and I hope this helps.

Answer 6

Depends on your kids' interests and capabilities.

Engage your kids in the various activities and watch if they enjoy without any problem and talk to them and listen to their expressions and make adjustments.

Answer 7

My oldest is 9 and last year I let her start guitar lessons on a Wednesday afternoon.

I am not involving my 6 yr old in anything until she's around the same age.

My reason being that a lot of extra curriculm activites are quite expensive and the 6 yr old isn't ready to "commit" to something yet.  I just don't like the idea of having to fork out tonnes of cash and then her not wanting to do it in a couple of weeks time!

My 9 yr old was the same, which is why I waited until she was 8.

There's an after-school sports program at their school which they are both involved in, so I think that's plenty.

I think if you pile them down with too many activities it becomes too much for them, and when they are older and start getting homework (my 6yr old already gets homework!!) it will have an impact on them being able to complete it on time as they're so busy with all the other stuff they're doing after school.

Answer 8

I think it honestly depends on what age your child is, what they are interested in, how many kids you have, and all sorts of factors like this. I'm glad you think it's important for your kids to have some downtime--it really is good for kids to have time that is unstructured where they can just be kids.

Personally, my husband and I are very busy withh work, but luckily my hours are flexible enough that I can go to work while my daughter is in school and be able to drive her aroundafterwordss.

Here is the plan that seems to work well for us. Each season we allow our daughter to pick 3 activities. One can be athletic (like her current fave of soccer), one can be artistic (art class or music) and one can be social (Girl Scouts or some other community type organization). Hubby and I try to help out and volunteer with each of these groups as much as we can and I think that makes a big difference. And with only 3 things each season life doesn't get too hectic, she can try new things, have enough time for  homework and her friends and family (Family time is very important to us).

Hope this gave you a good suggestion, just keep in mind that what works for one family doesn't neccesarily work for another, I mean my best friend has 6 kids who all do at least 4 sports activities each season. No way I could handle that!

Best of luck