My nephew is great at baseball and football. He is very talented and does a good job of keeping up his grades in school in spite of the 5-6 days a week that he either has practice or a game. It amazes me that they are able to keep up the schedule. I just wonder if staying that busy is a good thing.
Granted we only have a 2 year old right now. My nephew, if he keeps it up, will no doubt go to college on a sports scholarship because of his schedule but I worry about family time. We haven’t seen them for a family function in months and it seems like every time we do, he has grown another foot in height! He is already my height, which isn’t saying much! But I also can’t remember when my SIL told me they had a consistent family night. When they do have the occasional day off from activities, they sleep in and hang out as a family. Kudos to them for making family a priority.
My question to you is, how much is too much? Is the education kids get learning how to balance sports, extra curricular activities, school, and family life worth the time it takes (and frankly the cost of gas to do them) away from extended family and rest. I am not dogging my SIL. They do a great job balancing the life they have. I just can’t imagine staying that busy and not eating dinner together every night. I am sure there will come a time that my family doesn’t get dinner together every night. As it is, we get it at least 5 nights a week. But then again, my kids are little and not in school yet. How much is too much and how do you draw the line when you have multiple kids in multiple activities? Being thrifty with your time is a vital part of family life. I just don’t want to be burning the candle at both ends in 10 years like we already do too much of now. I want my kids to enjoy living at home. Not stopping in to eat and sleep. Now I know why, OMG I can’t believe I am fixing to admit this!, my mom said I could only go out one weekend night a weekend until I was a Sr. She wanted to see the whites of my eyes and hear what I was up to. Why do we always have to find out so late in life how smart our parents really are?
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[...] Balancing school and extra curricular activities is a fine line and the answer is different for each family. While Kelly’s kids are still young she wonders how her sister-in-law’s family does it. Thrifty Mommy tackles Family Time Education In Real Life. [...]
I believe it was Dennis and Barbara Rainey (from http://www.familylife.com) that said they limited their children to one activity a year. That sounds like a good policy to me. I don’t want to spend a huge portion of my family time driving my kids up and down the road to soccer practice, band practice, dance class, etc. Limiting their activities to only one may not be the magic answer for us, but it’s a good start and it helps kids to make priorities and for them to know that they can’t have everything.