Before I had kids, I often wondered why we didn't have consistent attendance when we had camps from some students. Most of it was based on the fact that when I was a kid, I was there every time the doors were open. But when I was a kid, I did two things...Little League baseball and basketball camps. That was it. The rest of the time I did something really crazy....I played in my yard with my sister or by myself.
Now I do have kids. Only one is old enough to participate in camps and little league, but I wonder what is too much? Do we schedule too much of her fun. She has attended boys' basketball camps, girls' basketball camps (2 different schools), volleyball camps, tennis camps, gymnastics, played soccer, and played coach pitch baseball. When I write that down, I wonder if it is too much. We never force her to participate, we ask her. And if she were to say "no", my wife and I would be fine with that. But she says "yes". Should we hold back some of these things to allow her more unscheduled time or is it part of the world we live in, she lives in today?
I try to be a pretty even minded parent which might be virtually impossible to do. But I observe her when she is doing what she is doing and she doesn't act bored. It kills my son who is 3 years younger. He wants to do everything that his sister does and we have allowed him in my camps and started him in gymnastics to help with his coordination.
I think we have to be cautious in comparing the world of our children with the world we grew up in. I think that is true for every generation. Because there are always changes in culture and each generation thinks they had it better than the current generation. Maybe we did, maybe our parents and grandparents had better than any of us. I guess it is going to be a debate on what is too much not in activities for kids, but also is it too much on toys, technology, and just about everything else.
So, this morning, we take the kids off to tennis camp, we will sign my daughter up for basketball camp, gymnastics this week, and soccer sign ups soon as well as my basketball camp for both kiddos...geez, I am worn out just thinking about it. As they age, we plan on narrowing what they do based on their likes and ability, but for now this is it for kids; and it makes more sense why we don't get consistent attendance in our camps from some kids. We are just but one of numerous things that kids have the opportunity to do every week and every day.
