When Children are in Too Many Activities

     Just like adults, we need to realize that children also need down time. We can't expect our children to be playing outside all of the time, or in organized activities all of the time. Although we want our children to be well rounded and try different activities, at the same time we do not want to burn them out.

     I had a neighbor that would carry her sleeping daughter out to car to go to ballet class. The child was exhausted, but the mom wanted to keep them busy. The son would be following along behind them rubbing his eyes, obviously awakening from a nap. These children had activities most days of the week, plus visited with family on the weekends. They rarely ever had time to just be children. They were constantly crabby and whiny after school and in the evening. They ate dinner late in the evenings after their activities were over so they missed out on much needed sleep. 

     Young children need time to just be children. They need to be able to hang around the house, play with their toys, watch some TV, read... without the stress of having to be somewhere everyday. Mom and Dad's need that time to relax also without having to run their children from activity to activity. Since so many households have two working parents, wouldn't it be nice to spend some evenings just being a family? It gets to be tiresome and overwhelming for everyone during certain times of the year when activities are running their course. I urge you to give yourself a break and enjoy some plain old fashioned family time.   

     Because of children's after school activities, many families are relying too much on fast food and are not able to sit down to family dinners. Having the half hour or so a day seated together at the dinner table is so very important to the bonding of your family unit. It has been proven that children that sit down the majority of the week as a family to eat dinner and relate to each other get in less trouble than the children that are on their own for dinner or are eating on the fly. 

     I think it is so important to allow your children free time to play pretend and recharge. They need to have time to do their homework, have conversations with their parents, and unorganized time playing with friends. It is exhausting to be running a taxi every evening after a long day at work. Do not worry, over the course of their school years, your children will be introduced to plenty of different sports and activities. Besides, when they are too tired they will not enjoy a team activity. Most often children are crabby because of the basics: hungry, thirsty, too tired or in need of some parent attention. Being overbooked often brings on the bad mood basics.

     Side Note: Please see my  5/27/16 post: Club Sports and Burnout;  worrying too early about getting your child into sports.