Are my kids too busy? I often get down because it seems like every single day is filled with activities. As soon as school is out, I coach so I am dealing with my responsibilities there, but our kids have at least one practice per night. Baseball, softball, basketball and/or gymnastics every day including weekends.
Are they too busy? I think so. One of my biggest fears is that at 9 and 6, they are so busy that they will be burned out by the age of 16. That at 16 they will want to quit all activities because they are just done with them.
So far, we haven't forced anything on them. They whine a little about practice from time to time, but nothing more than that. If they complain, we tell them they don't have to play the sport next season (what's a season anymore?), but they must finish out what they are doing now.
My son quit soccer this fall to play fall baseball. He has said that maybe next year, he would like to not play fall ball and get back into soccer, we shall see. We have signed a contract for my daughter to participate with a higher level gymnastics program, going 9 hours per week. She has made comments that maybe when it's over, she'd like to go back to her old gymnastics teacher, about an hour or two per week.
Parents often want their kids to play so many sports at a young age to make sure they get a college scholarship. That's the last reason why I want my kids to play sports, in fact, it probably isn't on the radar at all.
I want them to:
Have fun and enjoy themselves.
Learn to handle adversity and success with class.
Learn to keep competing through good and bad times.
Learn that in life, we often need the help of others to be successful.
Learn that hard work doesn't guarantee success, but you can still have a good attitude.
Socialize and bond with their classmates/teammates.
Learn so much more about life than they can get just doing nothing.
That's it. That's all. College scholarship? Sure it would be nice, but it has nothing to do with them playing. Call it the coach in me, but I see how rare that actually occurs.
Play hard, play smart, play together, have fun...that's it.
