How busy are you with your kid's activities?

[cats7494]

How many activities are your kids involved in? My dd is 11 and likes so many different things.

How often do you have things for your kids each week? (How many times do you have practice or games, etc..?)
Dh and I have differing views on this and I am just curious about the average person - well, at least the average DIS person!

 

[WIcruizer]

Depending on the time of year, our kida are involved in basketball, soccer, football, baseball, plus our HS age DD is involved with other club activities in HS.

We've lived this lifestyle for so many years that it doesn't phase me anymore. And since I coach some of the sports, I get something out of it as well. I now enjoy these activities more than what I used to do on my own anyhow, so I'm fine with it.

It's hilarious though when we share our calendar with our parents, people without kids, and even other people who have younger kids who don't realize what's coming. People are really amazed, and even get to the point of being insulting by implying our kids run our lives. (Which of course is true to a certain extent.)

 

[Beth76]

My kids only have one activity right now. And it works out perfectly. They both have gymnastics at the same time. Last "semester" we also had gymnastics and then the older one had swim lessons on another day. I think the spring might pick up with the addition of basketball and/or soccer for the older one. I don't want to get them too over-involved in everything.

 

[Living with the Land]

My DD6 is involved in pageants, modeling, gymnastics, swimming, soccer, and t-ball. It is a lot but we hate just sitting at home.

Holly

 

[thelionqueen]

I have very strong views on this subject, that I will share. Again, this is my personal view, and since you asked....

I only have my kids in 1 activity at a time. I would never do more than this.

My reasoning, when I was a child, I was ALWAYS doing something. Sports, band, cheerleading (by protest), poms, spelling bees, conferences, FBLA, HRHA, you name it.

As a grown adult, I realized I missed out on just being a kid. I didn't play with my friends in the street, I didn't have a "friendly" game of softball, I didn't hang out on the weekends in front of my house..etc. I missed a lot of my childhood with activities that really didn't give me much as an adult.

I encourage my kids to get into something they want to do. Have done Karate, soccer, basketball, swimming, piano and others. The only one both my sons stuck with and love is swimming. We have swimming lessons and free swim often.

My son wants to go back to karate this year, so we are going to give it a try again. My younger son is happy with swimming, so that is what he is doing.

I have several friends who have nothing but activities for their kids. In 2-4 different sports at once including other activities. It is just too much IMHO. I cannot imagine how running all day everyday from here to there, no matter where you're going or what you're doing, is beneficial to a child.

I find that my children are very independent and self confident when I am around other parents and their kids. The same kids who do tons of activities always seem wired, crabby and just generally not as content as I think my children are. Just my observations and my .02.

 

[Sleepy]

I guess I will probably get the trophy for most used taxi/chaparone.

My day starts with an hour round trip drive to pick my son up early from academic school.

Depending on what time his class is, we have between 30 minutes and 2 hours downtime at home....getting ready for dance class and doing homework. Then, off for the 1hr 30min commute to class. Spend anywhere from 2-4 hours waiting on him to get out of class, then anywhere from 1hr30min to 2 hours commute back home. Makes for a long day, but I don't mind.

 

[pixiemomma]

When soccer and hockey run into each other, we have something 5 evenings and or days a week. They usually overlap for a month or less.

 

[pfishgirl]

DS is 15 He is a Black Belt in Karate. He is also a helper for the lower belts in Karate so.. Karate is 3 nights per week and 1 day per week. Then DS goes to Peer Leadership and is a Volunteer there, that is 1 night a week. Oh and one weekend a month is Jr.ROTC.. Othen then that his friends all live in another town then we do, so 20 minutes each way for that on free weekends..

All I need now is a checkered hat and a meter reader and I am an official Taxi

 

[U2_rocks]

My 6 yr old DS is doing 1 activity during the week, and his younger sisters are doing none. I'm trying to get them all into gymnastics on Saturdays. Last term DS did both swimming and soccer, but we're scaling back to just soccer this term. My youngest is starting preschool, which adds more stress to my schedule, which is why we're curtailing activities. At this age DS can easily do 2 weekday activities, but it's not essential. My middle child is just starting full day school, and I think that will be enough for her to get used to right now - she will be too tired when school is done to do any activities.

Next term we will see how it goes - I'm in no rush to sign them up for a bunch of structured activities - they so enjoy free play!

 

[JCJRSmith]

I coach my son's travel soccer team. We are getting ready for the indoor season starting in two weeks, and it will be solid soccer until Summer. SWMBO coaches DD's soccer team - ditto for her.

 

[aprilgail2]

my 6 year old goes toTaekwondo 4 times a week, she goes to the gym twice a week, she takes sign language classes at the local library and girl scouts...other than that she goes ice skating when we have the time...

 

[KimR]

I have 3 girls in gymnastics and it seems we live at the gym:

Monday: DD4 has gymnastics from 4 - 5. DD8 goes from 4 - 7:30
Tuesday: DD13 has gymnastics from 5 - 8:30
Wednesday: Same as Monday
Thurdsay: Same as Tuesday
Friday: DD13 has piano from 7:45 to 8:30 am; gymnastics from 4:30 - 8:00
Saturday: DD13 has gymnastics from 9:00 - 1:00; DD4 has ballet from 10:00 - 11:00
Sunday: Freedom!!!!!

 

[daisyduck123]

We live at the pool.
Both DD11 & DS7 are on year round competetive swim teams.
We're at the pool 6 days a week...only Mondays do we have no swimming.

A few of the days vary but we're usually there from 4:20 - 7:00 p.m. on weeknights.

Weekends are different because of swim meets.
If we have a meet, we are gone from 6 a.m. til noon or noon until 6 p.m.

If we don't have meets, then we have swim practice for about 2 hours.

 

[kristasmom]

DD10 has softball on Monday afternoon, cheerleading on Wednesday afternoon, choir on Thursday afternoon, and newspaper club on Friday afternoon. She goes to a private school and all the practices/clubs are right after school (at the school) when she would be in daycare anyway. I gave her the choice to have the free playtime in daycare or join these activities, and she chose to spend her time in the activities. Softball games are on Saturday mornings, cheerleading events are about twice a month, and choir concerts are about once per month. If the activities cut into our homework/free time at home I don't think she would be involved in so much.

 

[cepmom]

I have three girls that are all involved in dance among other things. Our week looks like this:
Monday DD16 teaches dance 3:15 - 4:30, then ballet class 4:30 - 6:30
DD8 ballet class 6:30 - 7:30

Tuesday DD16 HS dance team 2:30 - 4:30
DD8 CCD 3:30 - 4:30
DD5 dance 5:00 - 6:00
DD8 dance 6:00 - 8:00

Wednesday DD16 HS dance team 2:30 - 4:30, then dance class 6:30 - 9:00

Thursday DD16 HS dance team 2:30 - 4:30, then teaching dance 4:30 - 5:30
DD8 Girl Scouts every other week 3:30 - 5:15

Friday DD16 has HS dance team football games and basketball games ~ not every week

Saturday younger DD's will play soccer in the spring

Sunday NOTHING!!

DD16 is also on a competition dance team with her studio and will have competitions coming up on the weekends this spring

 

[Rock'n Robin]

I have 3 kids and here is what they are in:
DD#1--8th grade--90 min. of dance on Monday night, one hour on Saturday. Goes to "youth church" every Wednesday at 7. Confirmation class at 11AM Sunday. Voice lessons after school on Thursday. Just made the chorus of "Annie", weekly rehearsals in Jan., more frequent until the show first weekend of March.
DD#2--5th grade--90 min. of dance Monday nights. Girl scouts after school every other Monday (last year for that, and not really an issue since school is close by). Piano lessons Tuesday after school. Basketball practice Tuesday evenings and a game on Saturday morning (only until end of Feb.). Will start drum lessons soon, and as soon as she has a few under her belt we'll pick between piano and drums.
DS--2nd grade--travel soccer--indoor now, but only 2 more games--has 10 sessions of skills practice at VERY ODD TIMES between this Saturday and March--mostly on weekend EVENINGS, last 2 are on SUNDAY MORNING. This really bothers me as it is during our main family time periods, and am sick of hearing "that's travel soccer!" from other parents. But I digress. He also is a cub scout--one den meeting and one pack meeting per month. He wants to take guitar lessons.
Robin M.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

I have 3 ds and I really try not to get them too involved with stuff. They dont really have alot of activities. They all have part time jobs too. DS17 has basketball now so we go to the home games. Its a 1 hour trip for that. The other 2 ds have bowling on sats. and they work birthday partys as needed on sat and sun afternoons. and they go to youth group on friday nights, that is enough for me.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

With 4 kids we have activities going on a lot even if each child is not involved in much. My DD is now in college, so don't have her to consider concerning activities.

My 15yo son take guitar lessons. He wants to take keyboard, either in place of guitar or in addition. That's it for him.

My 12yo is involved in a lot. He plays baseball most of the year--game March-April through October, but practices start in January. He'll have a couple games a week, plus a couple practices. He plays basketball in winter--one game and one practice a week. He's in Hebrew and religious school, so that takes time. His Bar Mitzvah is in November, so the bulk of the work will be wrapping up at that point and he'll have preconfirmation class after that.

My 6yo usually does one sport a season. Now he's playing indoor soccer and will probably play t-ball in the spring. Next winter he'll start playing basketball. He also goes to religious school.

In general I like to limit a child to one sport and one non-sport activity (scouts, etc). And then the religious school. Not a lot for each child, but it adds up when multiplied by 3-4.

 

[WIcruizer]

I have very strong views on this subject, that I will share. Again, this is my personal view, and since you asked....

I only have my kids in 1 activity at a time. I would never do more than this.

As a grown adult, I realized I missed out on just being a kid. I didn't play with my friends in the street, I didn't have a "friendly" game of softball, I didn't hang out on the weekends in front of my house..etc. I missed a lot of my childhood with activities that really didn't give me much as an adult.

I have several friends who have nothing but activities for their kids. In 2-4 different sports at once including other activities. It is just too much IMHO. I cannot imagine how running all day everyday from here to there, no matter where you're going or what you're doing, is beneficial to a child.

I find that my children are very independent and self confident when I am around other parents and their kids. The same kids who do tons of activities always seem wired, crabby and just generally not as content as I think my children are. Just my observations and my .02.

I understand what you're saying. We talk with other parents all the time about how kids don't play outside anymore. But it's ironic, because that's part of the reason my kids are involved in organized activities. You mention playing "friend;y" games of softball, etc. The only problem with that is you need other kids who are available to get together. Annd they're all in organized sports, activities. So it's a catch 22.

But I don't see how it would be harmful to kids UNLESS they're doing something they really don't want to do. Some kids can handle multiple activities/sports at the same time, others can't. My DS quit his traveling soccer team because it interfered too much with Little League. I do agree that many, many parents force kids into activities, and that's not a good thing.

I wish we could return to the times of 20 years ago when we did get together and play on our own. But this is the reality for the most part- participate in the organized sports, clubs, activities or you're on the outside looking in.

 

[Christine]

I guess it's all a "personality" thing. I'm an underachiever and so are my kids!! Honestly, we just don't like to be too busy. So both my kids do Tae Kwon Do. That takes them out of the house 2 evenings a week and then a Saturday. My neighbor's kid does it too, so often we split the "duty" so that we aren't all out this much.

My son is involved in band at school and during the seasonal concerts that involved some extra time. He also plays piano which takes him out one night a week.

My DD is in high school and is involved in drama. She is in a play now so there are 4 nights a week that I have to pick her up at 5:00 p.m. When there is no play, she does nothing else but Tae Kwon Do.

Both my DH and I work full-time with long commutes. It is just not in my nature to be out all night after putting in a full day. But some people absolutely THRIVE on this stuff, so I try not to be too critical to others about it.