How many sports do your kids participate in?

[NYPDwife]

Here, it usually starts as soon as spring soccer is finishing.

our spring baseball and soccer usually conflict- but in my case it's dd soccer and ds baseball. we just work it out among ourselves and sometimes with out "sports buddies". there is a family that our 2 ds play almost everything together so it works our for carpooling

Thanks!

 

[Colleen27]

We have a one team sport per season rule, to avoid overlap and to encourage the kids to take their committment to their team seriously. So we have football/cheer in the fall and baseball in the spring. But we also have quite a few non-sport/individual activities on top of that. DD dances all school year and is in Girl Scouts. Both kids are in 4H, take swim classes during the summer, and started horseback riding lessons this past year.

Do I feel overloaded? Not really. I'm a SAHM and while there are some days where I'd rather not have anything to do, that's more a product of having an infant along with the two active, school aged kids.

I've gotten a little criticism now and then, but it tends to come from friends with pre-school aged kids who aren't in the activities stage yet and I think they see it as more work/hassle than it is. I don't mind taking the kids to practices and games. I'm just as happy reading on the bleachers as I am on the couch, and I can take my laptop along if I have work that needs to get done. And the baby is happy in her Snuggi or her stroller, staring at the trees/lights/activity, so even taking her along doesn't really add much hassle to the experience. It helps that we live in a small town and nothing is more than 5 minutes away, so it isn't like running the kids around means a lot of time in the car or on the bikes (in better weather).

 

[bawsmom]

ds6 - tae kwon do, basketball, soccer, tball
dd6 - basketball, soccer, tball
dd7 - irish dance (3 times a week), modern dance, soccer
ds10 - soccer (spring, winter, indoor winter), basketball, baseball (2 teams), flag football, volleyball - he's on 2 - 3 sports teams each season
dd12 - just theater and chorus!!

Ds10 is the only one with a nutty schedule, but his friends are just as bad. We carpool A LOT, and my parents live in town, and both drive minivans. He has several games each weekend, and practices almost every day. We're off this week, and he's going nuts - it's in the 40's today, so he's roaming the neighborhood with his buddies.

DH coaches ds10's travel soccer team, and helps out with the twin's tball.

i feel like it keeps my kids busy too...not in front of the TV... and active!! our in laws all live in town or close to it so they can help too if needed! thanks goodness for the SUV and carpooling!! i also think that as ds gets older he will be playing more (city teams and school teams). ds will prob just do school teams.

 

[4inky]

Here it goes:
DD 13: cheerleading, gymnastics (all year), yearbook, beta talent, and bowling (high school, & youth leagues). She stays busy all year long. She loves it this way.

DS 11: safety patrol, and bowling (high school and youth leagues). He does like to be involved as his sister.

Both children love bowling and will eventually end up doing just that, but I wanted to offer them anything they are interested in trying. It is easier to try new things when you are young. One rule is if start an activity or sport you have to finish. They are not allowed to quit.

 

[bawsmom]

We have a one team sport per season rule, to avoid overlap and to encourage the kids to take their committment to their team seriously. So we have football/cheer in the fall and baseball in the spring. But we also have quite a few non-sport/individual activities on top of that. DD dances all school year and is in Girl Scouts. Both kids are in 4H, take swim classes during the summer, and started horseback riding lessons this past year.

Do I feel overloaded? Not really. I'm a SAHM and while there are some days where I'd rather not have anything to do, that's more a product of having an infant along with the two active, school aged kids.

I've gotten a little criticism now and then, but it tends to come from friends with pre-school aged kids who aren't in the activities stage yet and I think they see it as more work/hassle than it is. I don't mind taking the kids to practices and games. I'm just as happy reading on the bleachers as I am on the couch, and I can take my laptop along if I have work that needs to get done. And the baby is happy in her Snuggi or her stroller, staring at the trees/lights/activity, so even taking her along doesn't really add much hassle to the experience. It helps that we live in a small town and nothing is more than 5 minutes away, so it isn't like running the kids around means a lot of time in the car or on the bikes (in better weather).

i agree. i enjoy watching my kids and we live in a small town too... so nothing is too far away.

 

[mamacatnv]

DS played a 2 season sport (soccer) from the age of 4 to 8
Then it was 3 seasons (2 baseball and 1 basketball) thru the end of middle school.
In High School sports became year round with Football, Golf, Baseball and Basketball and summer conditioning for football.

Neither DH or I are athletic but we with DD were at every game.

DD has tried baseball, softball, karate, ballet, dance.............didn't like any of it.
We are going to switch gears and put her into piano.
She takes an art class weekly and loves it.
She has issues with anxiety and athletics are too stressful for her.

If you can juggle it and your kids like it who cares what anyone else thinks. I do believe in committment to a team and we had a 1 activity at a time rule also but that worked for us, our schedules and was as much committment as we were willing to make.
I do believe that if you sign up, you show up to everything, you stay to the end and you give 100%. The only issue I ever had was the kids that were involved in so many things that they couldn't give 100% to any one thing.
We had kids thru the years that had to leave a soccer game early because they had baseball practice to get to etc.

 

[Pigeon]

My 11yo does Tae Kwon Do. She also takes private violin lessons.

My 8 yo takes dance and gymnastics.

That's as much as I think is good for them. I hate everything associated with team sports, so I'm thrilled that they aren't at all interested in them either.

 

[jimmalru80]

At their peak, twin DD's played high school soccer and basketball, club soccer in the spring and summer & AAU basketball from March until August. If they felt overloaded, they never mentioned it. We traveled every weekend from Rhode Island to North Carolina and we loved every second of it and would repeat it in a heartbeat. And I could care less what anybody else thought.
They are now playing collegiate soccer (one at the D-1 level, the other at D-2) and also playing intramural basketball when they can.

 

[NYPDwife]

I have a good question...

How many of you, put your children into these sports/activities, with the hope that one day, it will fully/partially pay for college?

I know I do!!! Can you say sports scholarship?

Both of DH's brothers gained partial or full sport scholarships to great universities(Penn State & Villanova), so I can only dream that my children will do the same.

 

[mom2travel]

DS(13/8th grade): currently plays tennis year-round. This can be 6 days a week in the spring. The rest of the school year it is 2-4 times a week, depending upon how heavy/light his homework is. He also plays a school winter sport 2-3days per week (mid-Nov thru Jan), and has a religion class on Sunday.

DD (9/3rd grade): has gymnastics 3 days per week, does girl scouts (1 or 2 times per month), and has religion class on Sundays. She is very conscious of not doing too much. Last year she took dance, so chose not to participate in Brownies; this year she dropped dance and joined Brownies (all her choice).

DH & I both work full time. We do not feel crazy from our kids' schedules most of the time (sometimes there are extras at school like band concerts, etc that cause some chaos). We have carpools for most of their activities. And we still have all four of us home for dinner at least 5 days a week (DD misses 2 because of her practice).
I've never had any criticism about their schedules (and it is really no one else's business imo). Compared to some of their friends, our children's schedule is nothing - DD has a friend that has at least one activity every day of the week, some days more than one!! To each his own though...

I'm happy for them to do whatever they enjoy. I think it is good for them to have something they are good at and love to do. They both do well in school, fit in "chill time", and spend time with their friends doing kid-stuff. If it becomes a chore and not fun, that's when it would need to be scaled back.

 

[mom2travel]

I have a good question...

How many of you, put your children into these sports/activities, with the hope that one day, it will fully/partially pay for college?I know I do!!! Can you say sports scholarship?

Both of DH's brothers gained partial or full sport scholarships to great universities(Penn State & Villanova), so I can only dream that my children will do the same.

The kids chose the activities, so we certainly didn't put them in for the purpose of getting scholarships, but we sure wouldn't mind if someone wants to pay for their college education!! We can dream, right?

Also, Villanova alum here... go Wildcats!!

 

[brockash]

My DD is too young for sports, so I'm not sure how things will be for her, but DS (7) has always loved doing stuff. His usually yearly schedule is soccer in the spring, baseball in the summer, football in the fall, and he'll be doing basketball this winter, but they didn't have it for his age before this year. He did karate in the winter and is doing swim lessons right now. The only time something overlaps is in the begining of summer when he has baseball and for about a month also has swimming, but he doesn't have school, so I'm fine with that. He really likes all of it, and during the school year (especially with football) I wonder if it takes up too much time, but really it's just my time; I don't think it's too much for him (he enjoys it and still gets a break after school before going to practice/games.) DH and I both work full time, and their football games were about a 1/2 hr. from where we lived, and they had practice 3 times a week. On game days I'd rush home from work, pick up the kiddos, and we did homework and spelling on the way down to the game and back. I was lucky because my mom watches them after school, so she would feed them early and make sure DS was changed. I don't tend to hear criticism from friends or co-workers about it, but sometimes I think my extended family think it's too much, but he really enjoys it and we can make it work, so we do.

 

[Tinijocaro]

I have three in hockey:

DS 13 hockey oct-march, May-july
track- spring, cross country-fall

DD11 hockey oct-march, may-july

DS9 hockey oct-march, may - july

DD7 gymnastics, but is asking to play hockey

 

[LBAK]

DD13 plays school soccer, basketball and lacrosse. She is also on 2 soccer teams, 2 lacrosse teams that play year round and summer basketball team. Yes it's a lot, she loves it. My DH and I both work full time. My other DD is 10 years older so the 13 year old is the only one we have to worry about right now.

 

[Freyja]

DS 14: Soccer 4 times a week and games every weekend in the summer (June, July and August) and occasionally during the winter months.

DD 12: Swimming 5 times a week and competitions every other weekend (usually both days). Used to take riding lessons but gave them up for the competitive swimming.

DD 6: Ballet, once a week and soccer 3 times a week and games every weekend during the summer and occasionally during the winter (there was one today).

DD 3: Will start ballet in the fall.

 

[ToyStory Fan]

DS9 does karate and travel ice hockey pretty much year round. Recently got back into baseball and last year started playing lacrosse.

Do I have any time for myself...yeah - once he's in bed for the night, but I wouldn't change it for anything. Do my friends think I'm crazy...yeah - add family to that list too, unfortunately we plan alot of our functions around DS's hockey schedule - we invest too much time, money and energy not to make it a priority - plus, the kid is pretty good at it.

As for DD7, karate too and she's done AYSO soccer and will start girls softball this year, but not nearly as demanding a schedule though as she often finds herself as big brother's cheerleader at the hockey rinks.

 

[Stacerita]

DD is only allowed to participate in one sport at a time, and for one team only. I did one year where the seasons of baseball and softball overlapped and she played on both....it was insane. Told her never again. There is only one of me and I can't do it all. She learned to pick what she really wanted to do. It still is a crazy schedule, but workable.

 

[LisaMommy]

DS does soccer and Cub Scouts and DD does ballet and will be starting Girl Scouts. I don't feel overloaded and the kids definitely don't. I don't think anyone has ever criticized us, but we have friends with kids involved in a lot more.

 

[Colleen27]

I have a good question...

How many of you, put your children into these sports/activities, with the hope that one day, it will fully/partially pay for college?

I know I do!!! Can you say sports scholarship?

It didn't even cross my mind. My kids are young enough that I assume they'll change activities a million times before high school. Right now, DS says he wants to play football for U of Michigan. I can't say I'd be disappointed with that, being a huge Wolverines fan myself, but he doesn't need a scholarship for it, just the talent to make the team. If he stays in state, we've got his college costs covered.

 

[ghessone]

2 daughters. Each limit is one sport per season + one other activity (girl scouts, afterschool club, etc), summers off to play and recoup.