Me and my beautiful Kailey
Today’s families are busier than mine was when my kids were growing up. They have so many activities after school and on the weekend – is it too much?
Here is my 9 year old granddaughter Kailey’s schedule for this past weekend:
- Friday at 7 am she had a ringette tournament and the first game (yes on a school day)
- Saturday at 7 am she had the second game of the tournament
- Saturday at 12 noon she had the third game of the tournament
*these 3 games were played in Pickering, an hour’s drive from her home
- Saturday evening Kailey, her Mom and 2 friends went to the Justin Bieber concert
- Sunday afternoon Kailey and I went to a Tea with cast members of The Young and the Restless
Can you believe this? I think its one of their busiest weekends of the year, but not that unsual. In addition to Kailey playing ringette my grandson (6) Dylan plays hockey and that requires 2-3 times a week practices and a game. Oh and Kailey has 1 or 2 practices a week as well, and occasionally she has power skating after school on Thursdays (I take her to that).
Both Kailey and Dylan have homework every night – Kailey has about 1-1/2 hours and Dylan has about 15-30 minutes a night.
I’m exhausted just typing this. I certainly have noticed that my grandchildren are often very tired and its not surprising with this kind of schedule. Does this seem excessive to you? I know the kids love their ringette and hockey, and the chance to go to a Bieber concert would never be passed up no matter how tired she was!
I think its wonderful that my grandchildren are playing team sports which have resulted in wonderful friendships and they have learned the importance of working as a team. I’ve asked them if its too much for them – all this extra curricular stuff – and they tell me its not, they love it, although Kailey does admit on occasion to being tired and not feeling like going to ringette practice. I think this is normal – don’t we all do that on occasion.
I’m thankful that now that I’m retired I can help my daughter and son-in-law on occasion by taking one of the kids to an activity, or picking them up at the school bus, or taking Kailey to get her glasses fixed (she ran into a tree – no one was hurt!). They certainly are fit kids with all the skating they do – which is a good thing. Most kids don’t get enough physical activity.
I almost forgot to add that all of this activity gives me plenty of opportunity to spend time with my grandchildren, and for me that is the best part! Yesterday Kailey and I had the best time ever – we laughed, we screamed with joy at seeing cast members from Y&R, and we ate good food – what could be better!
I worry about my daughter and son-in-law – they are the ones that have to take the kids to all these activities. However, they seem to handle it well (for the most part) by keeping fit themselves! Good for them!
What do you think?
6 Responses to HOW DO THEY DO IT?
That IS a VERY busy schedule!! Often times I talk to my mom about this too. She believes that we are pushing our children too much to become more anxious and impatient in the long run. We are making a society that is too fast-paced to keep up with ourselves.
I am indifferent, I think if it works for a family then why not? Personally, I have taken on the ‘old-school’ approach and kept my kiddos pretty relaxed for the most part when it comes to extra-curriculars. BUT we are very active at home…another thing my mother does not agree with. She says children need time to ‘relax’ and unwind. I think kids have definitely changed since her day…mine don’t sit for longer than 10 minutes!
As long as everyone is happy with the outcome I think what works for one family may not work for another.
It is busy indeed and we are so lucky to have extended family like Bubbie Bonnie to help out. It is so hard to know how many activities are too much and when to slow it all down. The days we have no plans are such an AWESOME treat!!
It is quite the topic. We left my parents at our house with our girls and their schedules for one week. They were shocked and vocal about the craziness. But it is really largely me and my husband who are the ones running around insanely. Each child is only really experiencing her own schedule (which is admittedly busy as they are all in competitive sports). And as me and my husband place value on our family being physically active it is a trade off we are willing to make. After all, schools seem to have lost any regard for physical fitness for children. I don’t think my kids do more than an hour a week at school. And these days I find it annoying that teachers work homework into the curriculum instead of it being a way to complete what wasn’t done during school, leaving me to be a teacher as well instead of doing other stuff with my kids. And I don’t know how people do it cos I should NOT teach my own children!!! But that’s a whole other issue!!
I prefer them to be busy making friends, learning life lessons and being active with sports than them sat around texting and watching tv.
It is a different time with different dangers , especially with most kids having the internet in their hands. And parents are getting bombarded with pressure for making smart, active, socially and ecologically responsible beings (to mention just a few traits). We’ll just have to do the best we can. Thanks for the post Bubbie Bonnie, there’s plenty to discuss there.
It is amazing how busy kids’ and parents’ schedules can be! Our daughter just turned 4 and I worry that her busy schedule with activities and everything in between may be stressing her out at a very young age. I think it’s important to have her involved in activities like ballet, swimming and horseback riding, but her grandparents seem to think we need to let kids just be kids and that they’ll have lots of time to do these things when they’re a bit older. The grandparents feel she just needs to be able to play with her friends and learn from those kinds of social experiences. It’s a tough call, really.
Hubby and I are both crazy busy with committees and organizations that we are on too. The running around is certainly exhausting.
What a great post, Bonnie!
I was the parent of 2 young children once too, and my husband and I had to make choices about which activities our kids took part in. We both worked and it was very hard to get the kids to activities after work, but we did it with hockey and hebrew school. We used to have gymnastics and karate but we could not do everything. It is a very hard decision for families to make today, but I think activities involving physical activity are the most important – for our kids’ health. We should also discuss this with our kids to see what they love and what they can do without!
I have 5 kids and they are all in atleast 1 program a week – I understand how busy it gets but my kids all love it and I am glad they are able to enjoy experiences that I couldn’t as a child.