The opposite of overscheduled

[Anonymous]

Can somebody explain the philosophy behind having no organized activities or enrichment (music lessons, language lessons, or tutoring) for your child? I'm talking about situations where there is plenty of money to pay for them and the child has requested them. Parents don't work unreasonable hours, so it's not a question of time. They just never get around to signing up for music lessons, soccer teams, art camps, chess clubs, sailing lessons, etc... I know that most people consider the UMC kids of the DMV to be overscheduled. But it doesn't seem any more healthy to do no activities or zero enrichment. These are not free range kids either. They don't have any interest in exploring more than their own street nor would the parents allow that.

[Anonymous]

Honestly why do you care?

[Anonymous]

How old are these kids?

[Anonymous]

My parents were like that. They were just really selfish people and our lives revolved around them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can somebody explain the philosophy behind having no organized activities or enrichment (music lessons, language lessons, or tutoring) for your child? I'm talking about situations where there is plenty of money to pay for them and the child has requested them. Parents don't work unreasonable hours, so it's not a question of time. They just never get around to signing up for music lessons, soccer teams, art camps, chess clubs, sailing lessons, etc... I know that most people consider the UMC kids of the DMV to be overscheduled. But it doesn't seem any more healthy to do no activities or zero enrichment. These are not free range kids either. They don't have any interest in exploring more than their own street nor would the parents allow that.

MYOB you nosey snob. Many parents have the time, money, and relevant education to provide academic, STEM, and artistic enrichment for their children in their own homes, far away from your disapproving gaze. Saves us a helluva a lot of time and money to teach our kids Python and water color painting at home instead of chauffering them to over-priced coding and art camps.

[Anonymous]

Sure, the kids didn't want them. I didn't have none, but very few. I had a great childhood, teens years included and am doing well in adulthood. I also grew up with a physical disability, so sports were out if the question. But, to answer your question time amd financial commitments arent doable for alot of families. Even, with money/time a parent may decode they want different for their families and their kids. It's really no different than a parent saying no to a sport if they feel it's to dangerous.

[Anonymous]

My four year old has no interest and complains bitterly doing sports. He might have adhd and we’ll try again when he’s older. But thanks for judging us! You must know our kids better than we do…

[Anonymous]

The parents have issues. Mine were asocial and just wanted me to stay home all the time. It wasn’t fun.

[Anonymous]

There could be so many reasons for this! Age, level of interest in doing activities by the kids, special needs, personality of kids, parent ability to teach/work with kids on activities themselves…
My kids are now 11 and 9 and do several activities, but that is entirely because they are interested in them and so I have arranged them. When they were younger, neither were very interested in trying different sports or music or other things - I offered and sometimes did a couple of classes of things but they just weren’t into and I don’t believe in pushing kids into things.
As a kid I did music from a young age but literally no other activities ever. I came home after school and read for hours, saw friends or chatted to them on the phone, and that was it. That was all I wanted and I still managed to get into an excellent college, grad school and a great career.

[Anonymous]

Umm I let my kids have free time for months at a time. They have their own projects, one taught himself to code and is now is designing a game, another writes scripts and runs youtube videos for fun.

Point is, you don't need to be in a paid weekly program to be productive and gain enrichment.

[Anonymous]

I explicitly stated that these are parents with plenty of money and time. I didn't ask about kids with special needs since these kids don't have any. These are kids that are ASKING repeatedly to do certain activities. These happen to be activities that neither parent has the skills to teach and I see them often enough to know that there isn't some other version of these activities taking place at home. Please stop answering questions I didn't ask and discussing situations I didn't ask about.

Age ranges are elementary and middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I explicitly stated that these are parents with plenty of money and time. I didn't ask about kids with special needs since these kids don't have any. These are kids that are ASKING repeatedly to do certain activities. These happen to be activities that neither parent has the skills to teach and I see them often enough to know that there isn't some other version of these activities taking place at home. Please stop answering questions I didn't ask and discussing situations I didn't ask about.

Age ranges are elementary and middle school.

Is this a hypothetical? How do you know the kids are repeatedly asking? If you know that, do you know what answers the parents are giving?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I explicitly stated that these are parents with plenty of money and time. I didn't ask about kids with special needs since these kids don't have any. These are kids that are ASKING repeatedly to do certain activities. These happen to be activities that neither parent has the skills to teach and I see them often enough to know that there isn't some other version of these activities taking place at home. Please stop answering questions I didn't ask and discussing situations I didn't ask about.

Age ranges are elementary and middle school.

Please stop butting into other people's lives. You sound insane. You are on a parenting forum. Do you not have your own children to attend to???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I explicitly stated that these are parents with plenty of money and time. I didn't ask about kids with special needs since these kids don't have any. These are kids that are ASKING repeatedly to do certain activities. These happen to be activities that neither parent has the skills to teach and I see them often enough to know that there isn't some other version of these activities taking place at home. Please stop answering questions I didn't ask and discussing situations I didn't ask about.

Age ranges are elementary and middle school.

We don't know these people!

If you care so much, ask them! Since you apparently know their lives pretty intimately already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I explicitly stated that these are parents with plenty of money and time. I didn't ask about kids with special needs since these kids don't have any. These are kids that are ASKING repeatedly to do certain activities. These happen to be activities that neither parent has the skills to teach and I see them often enough to know that there isn't some other version of these activities taking place at home. Please stop answering questions I didn't ask and discussing situations I didn't ask about.

Age ranges are elementary and middle school.

Is this a hypothetical? How do you know the kids are repeatedly asking? If you know that, do you know what answers the parents are giving?

Unless she has secretly planted hidden cameras and microphones around their house, she doesn't actually *know* anything. She has the over-active imagination of someone with a severe case of busybodyitis.