Sarah is a freelance writer and one of Australia's best known parenting bloggers.In her everyday ...
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Toddler
Toddler Blog
Sarah
28
Feb
The over-scheduled child
Mr. Small is the youngest of my little clan and as a result, I think he is desperate to do everything his older brother and sister do. Consequently, within ten minutes of their first tennis lesson the other day, I found him holding a racket in his little hands begging to join the class.
The coach was fine with him participating and even though he is only a toddler, he listened keenly and did his best. I found myself feeling very proud of his determination and fierce desire to hit the ball over the net. But at the back of my mind I fretted about him doing too much.
I don’t think I’m alone in worrying about this kind of thing. The trouble is, the older two are big enough to do after school sports. And they are naturally very active. Mr. Small is as well, but I don’t think he’s big enough. Equally I don’t want him throwing tantrums on the sidelines while they play hockey or football because he is frustrated by his limitations. His day is already busy enough with regular daily activities.
So I’m trying to figure this out bit by bit.
I have a girlfriend who has two boys. The older one is destined to be the sport star of tomorrow. The younger one couldn’t care less if he never saw a football field once in his life. So she has to juggle the demands of one with the needs of the other. Like me, her younger son is too small to cope with too much activity but it is for different reasons.
We’ve both had to figure out ways to set boundaries for our children to ensure their needs are being met.
So I try to ensure if we have a sporting activity one day there is a break the next day. It doesn’t always work like that. But like everything with parenting we’re doing our best. How do you juggle your kids activities?
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5 Member comments Post a reply
Following a recent event Sarah examines how much is too much for toddlers.
Read the full blog post: The over-scheduled child
Posted 01 March 2011 - 01:46 AM
I opened this expecting it to be about children who have too many activities planned for them and go from one to the next, the title doesnt match what the blog is about.
Posted 01 March 2011 - 02:26 AM
I was trying to reflect more on my worry of over-scheduling children, or mine anyway. I think it's very easy to get caught in the trap of doing exactly what you said, going from one thing to the next.
Posted 01 March 2011 - 02:33 AM
I have been having similar concerns with my family. My eldest DD wants to do soccer and I want her to do swimming lessons and dance, she is 9 so this amount of activities is okay. But then I have DD #2 who is 6 and wants to do all her sister is doing and DS who is 2 who I can imagine will want to do the same. This will be my eldests 1st year doing sport, so how do I make it fair and tell my 6yr old that she has to be a little older before she can do a sport.And how to I get around a DS that I just want to cruise with no lessons that he cant do any?
The cost and time factors make it hard as well as the good old fashioned arguement of how much is too much for children. I think that you can very easily over-saturate a childs day and I believe that kids learn through play, we need to leave time for our littles to explore and learn on their levels.
I agree that it is sooo hard to balance for our children
Posted 01 March 2011 - 04:13 AM
That's been a hard thing for me as well with my youngest in that they do have to tag along to the older ones activities. I wish there was some way to figure this out easily as well. Glad I'm not the only mum struggling with the juggle.
Posted 01 March 2011 - 04:31 AM
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