Ericka Kammerer wrote:
wrote:


My husband and I have already decided that our kids will be allowed
to
choose one activity per semester - one lesson, one club, one class
outside of school. If they are able to do so in a way that doesn't
inconvenience the rest of the family, they can choose to pick up
Scouts
or something too. We are not going to be one of those families who
never has dinner together because the kids are always at practice
or
lessons or whatnot. It's a choice, not a requirement.

While I agree with you in principle, it isn't always
that easy to follow through on this. For it to work, you assume
that your kids will either jump about from activity to activity
(doing something different each semester) or will focus on just
one activity exclusively (doing the same activity over and over).

That's a good point. I figure that our kids will probably take music
lessons, and we'll go to the gym (or the park) as a family and get
physical activity there. I don't think that physical activity needs to
be a "sport" to have value, and while sports are an important part of
development for a lot of kids, it's possible to raise happy, healthy
kids who never play an organized sport. The kids in my neighborhood
are forever outside shooting hoops and riding their bikes (much to the
delight of my dog, who barks at them day and night...).

If they don't have an affinity for music, we'll try dance or art or
something else. The thing is that I would rather that we eat as a
family every night than have overscheduled, overburdened kids. If
they're in school for 7 hours a day, then they're in activities all
afternoon, and then they have to do their homework, they miss out on
other things (like dinner and family time) that are, IMHO, more
important.

My mom spent thousands of dollars on music lessons for me, and I can't
play more than a few notes anymore. Was it good for me? Sure. But
the things I really remember about childhood were that I hated to
practice, and I really loved it when we all sat down and had dinner
together. I never played soccer, but the neighborhood kids would all
get together and play Kick the Can or Tag in the empty lot down the
street. I had a great childhood, and I was limited to one activity a
semester (I think we were allowed to pick up more during the summer).

Sometimes you can enrich your kids to the point of poisoning them -
even objectively healthy things, like water, are toxic in large
amounts.

But if you want your kids to be in two activities a semester, you won't
get any complaints from me. Maybe I can work it out so that we
have piano for both kids on Monday, and then they're both in the same
martial arts class on Friday or something... With creative scheduling,
you can make something like that work without making yourself crazy.

Hahah... What am I talking about, "both kids," I'm just now pregnant
with #1!!

Amy (not a mother yet, so still a "perfect parent" )