Youth sports and over scheduling

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we all being honest about what teen boys do with unsupervised free time? Best case, my 13 year old is gaming.

Mine built an illegal fort on park land…woops

Mine does those things when we go camping as a family in the summer and leave all electronics at home. I love it. When he's home on a Sunday (mandated rest day), his buddies are constantly bugging him to play Fortnite (hate), or he's into trouble on the internet when I'm not looking (key logger). He's a great kid, but he's also a curious teenage boy.

And was brought home by police for trespassing in an abandoned home.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I don't really see kids these days having much different schedules then my friends and I had in the Midwest in the 80s. Year round swim team from a young age, plus several other sports depending on the season or age, an instrument, etc.

I'm in the Midwest and that is what people do today. Competitive swim or hockey/baseball, plus another sport or two each season. Some do an instrument, but nobody calls out families for overdoing sports. Only if the kid is taking an instrument or doing academic enrichment is he "over scheduled." Meanwhile I'm side eying the elementary kid who can't make half his practices due to his "main sport", and when he shows up to games and practices he's a tired mess.

DP, but I do find it interesting that this thread is in the sports forum, but the one study mentioned in the article is about everything kids do after school, including homework. It also found the effects strongest in high school, not younger. It feels like kind of the reverse of your situation (probably cultural in different regions), but I see a lot more overscheduling discourse here around the problems elementary schoolers in travel sports and not high schoolers with too much homework.

(I have neither a high schooler nor a kid in travel sports, so I'm not coming at this from either angle personally)

Kids at every age need and should have free time, they deserve it . I understand wanting to keep high school aged teens out if trouble, and some business is good, but overscheduling is never good.

I don't think I know a single competitive college bound high schooler who isn't overscheduled by those definitions.

You don't know a college bound high schooler who can't scrape together several hours of hangout time with friends every week? Really?

Not in this day in age anyway. When I was in HS yes, but weren't as busy or had as much homework. And I find it hard to believe that ppl haven't met overscheduled kids who were forced to do activities

I find it hard to believe that kids don't have free time. How much of that is because they're scrolling TikTok while they're supposed to be doing homework? When I was in HS it was just IM-ing other kids instead of doing our work, but same idea. I don't buy that kids have more homework now than they did decades ago, given the insane amount of griping about teachers giving less and less homework in the press and on here.

I don't understand parents wanting their kids to have a ton of homework either.

Because I want my kid to learn how to be successful. And part of life is doing work (even if homework seems mindless or redundant). Learning to do work and learning to manage one's schedule at a young age assists down the road. Further, without doing homework, how can you (and the school system) possible know if a student has mastered the material. I'm also not talking about hours and hours but the ten minute per grade up through 6th grade is a good gage of how much homework a child should have.

My child didn’t do any honors or APs and did fine at a T30 college.

DP. There's a big difference between not pushing hard through high school and being an ES kid who literally doesn't know how to manage your afternoon because your teacher is too lazy to assign 15 minutes of math worksheets - which is a common complaint these days on the public school forums (not everyone, not at every school, but common enough). If your kid is in college or out of college now, your kid went to school in a much different environment. So much has changed in a decade with elementary school educations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We know a girl who is in travel basketball, soccer and flag football and who also swims, runs and does "rec" lacrosse. It's none of my business and maybe she is desperate to do all of these things. But I feel like-- when does she just get to be a kid?!

Is she playing all those sports with adults?

Organized, supervised play isn't the same.

Nobody said it’s the same but it’s still being a kid. It actually builds bonds that normal play doesn’t build.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't really see kids these days having much different schedules then my friends and I had in the Midwest in the 80s. Year round swim team from a young age, plus several other sports depending on the season or age, an instrument, etc.

I'm in the Midwest and that is what people do today. Competitive swim or hockey/baseball, plus another sport or two each season. Some do an instrument, but nobody calls out families for overdoing sports. Only if the kid is taking an instrument or doing academic enrichment is he "over scheduled." Meanwhile I'm side eying the elementary kid who can't make half his practices due to his "main sport", and when he shows up to games and practices he's a tired mess.

DP, but I do find it interesting that this thread is in the sports forum, but the one study mentioned in the article is about everything kids do after school, including homework. It also found the effects strongest in high school, not younger. It feels like kind of the reverse of your situation (probably cultural in different regions), but I see a lot more overscheduling discourse here around the problems elementary schoolers in travel sports and not high schoolers with too much homework.

(I have neither a high schooler nor a kid in travel sports, so I'm not coming at this from either angle personally)

Kids at every age need and should have free time, they deserve it . I understand wanting to keep high school aged teens out if trouble, and some business is good, but overscheduling is never good.

I don't think I know a single competitive college bound high schooler who isn't overscheduled by those definitions.

You don't know a college bound high schooler who can't scrape together several hours of hangout time with friends every week? Really?

Even the overscheduled kids have several hours a week. Mine does. The people who are for more unstructured time are arguing for hours every day.

They also have a lot of free time during travel sports tournaments to do fun things like cause a ruckus at the hotel pool, play knee hockey for hours in a hotel conference room with their buddies, go to a professional sports game together in the evening, and eat meals together. The kids typically have a fantastic time. I'd rather be at the spa or on a hike though.

I don't think that free time isn't the same though.

Why?

It's just different, it's constantly supervised and there isn't much time for kids to go off and actually do what they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't really see kids these days having much different schedules then my friends and I had in the Midwest in the 80s. Year round swim team from a young age, plus several other sports depending on the season or age, an instrument, etc.

I'm in the Midwest and that is what people do today. Competitive swim or hockey/baseball, plus another sport or two each season. Some do an instrument, but nobody calls out families for overdoing sports. Only if the kid is taking an instrument or doing academic enrichment is he "over scheduled." Meanwhile I'm side eying the elementary kid who can't make half his practices due to his "main sport", and when he shows up to games and practices he's a tired mess.

DP, but I do find it interesting that this thread is in the sports forum, but the one study mentioned in the article is about everything kids do after school, including homework. It also found the effects strongest in high school, not younger. It feels like kind of the reverse of your situation (probably cultural in different regions), but I see a lot more overscheduling discourse here around the problems elementary schoolers in travel sports and not high schoolers with too much homework.

(I have neither a high schooler nor a kid in travel sports, so I'm not coming at this from either angle personally)

Kids at every age need and should have free time, they deserve it . I understand wanting to keep high school aged teens out if trouble, and some business is good, but overscheduling is never good.

I don't think I know a single competitive college bound high schooler who isn't overscheduled by those definitions.

You don't know a college bound high schooler who can't scrape together several hours of hangout time with friends every week? Really?

Not in this day in age anyway. When I was in HS yes, but weren't as busy or had as much homework. And I find it hard to believe that ppl haven't met overscheduled kids who were forced to do activities

I find it hard to believe that kids don't have free time. How much of that is because they're scrolling TikTok while they're supposed to be doing homework? When I was in HS it was just IM-ing other kids instead of doing our work, but same idea. I don't buy that kids have more homework now than they did decades ago, given the insane amount of griping about teachers giving less and less homework in the press and on here.

I don't understand parents wanting their kids to have a ton of homework either.

Because I want my kid to learn how to be successful. And part of life is doing work (even if homework seems mindless or redundant). Learning to do work and learning to manage one's schedule at a young age assists down the road. Further, without doing homework, how can you (and the school system) possible know if a student has mastered the material. I'm also not talking about hours and hours but the ten minute per grade up through 6th grade is a good gage of how much homework a child should have.

My child didn’t do any honors or APs and did fine at a T30 college.

DP. There's a big difference between not pushing hard through high school and being an ES kid who literally doesn't know how to manage your afternoon because your teacher is too lazy to assign 15 minutes of math worksheets - which is a common complaint these days on the public school forums (not everyone, not at every school, but common enough). If your kid is in college or out of college now, your kid went to school in a much different environment. So much has changed in a decade with elementary school educations.

No it hasn’t.

I managed my kids school so they weren’t taking Algebra in 6th or 7th and being pushed into ridiculous classes with endless homework.

You push your kids homework because you think it will get them somewhere… like the article says.

My child followed his passion.., which looked to you like over scheduling… and his passion led home somewhere.

Parents don’t understand that we are letting kids follow passion not pushing them .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't really see kids these days having much different schedules then my friends and I had in the Midwest in the 80s. Year round swim team from a young age, plus several other sports depending on the season or age, an instrument, etc.

I'm in the Midwest and that is what people do today. Competitive swim or hockey/baseball, plus another sport or two each season. Some do an instrument, but nobody calls out families for overdoing sports. Only if the kid is taking an instrument or doing academic enrichment is he "over scheduled." Meanwhile I'm side eying the elementary kid who can't make half his practices due to his "main sport", and when he shows up to games and practices he's a tired mess.

DP, but I do find it interesting that this thread is in the sports forum, but the one study mentioned in the article is about everything kids do after school, including homework. It also found the effects strongest in high school, not younger. It feels like kind of the reverse of your situation (probably cultural in different regions), but I see a lot more overscheduling discourse here around the problems elementary schoolers in travel sports and not high schoolers with too much homework.

(I have neither a high schooler nor a kid in travel sports, so I'm not coming at this from either angle personally)

Kids at every age need and should have free time, they deserve it . I understand wanting to keep high school aged teens out if trouble, and some business is good, but overscheduling is never good.

I don't think I know a single competitive college bound high schooler who isn't overscheduled by those definitions.

You don't know a college bound high schooler who can't scrape together several hours of hangout time with friends every week? Really?

Even the overscheduled kids have several hours a week. Mine does. The people who are for more unstructured time are arguing for hours every day.

They also have a lot of free time during travel sports tournaments to do fun things like cause a ruckus at the hotel pool, play knee hockey for hours in a hotel conference room with their buddies, go to a professional sports game together in the evening, and eat meals together. The kids typically have a fantastic time. I'd rather be at the spa or on a hike though.

I don't think that free time isn't the same though.

Why?

It's just different, it's constantly supervised and there isn't much time for kids to go off and actually do what they want.

Being in a hotel room goofing off is not different than being in your basement.

Your kid is supervised.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't really see kids these days having much different schedules then my friends and I had in the Midwest in the 80s. Year round swim team from a young age, plus several other sports depending on the season or age, an instrument, etc.

I'm in the Midwest and that is what people do today. Competitive swim or hockey/baseball, plus another sport or two each season. Some do an instrument, but nobody calls out families for overdoing sports. Only if the kid is taking an instrument or doing academic enrichment is he "over scheduled." Meanwhile I'm side eying the elementary kid who can't make half his practices due to his "main sport", and when he shows up to games and practices he's a tired mess.

DP, but I do find it interesting that this thread is in the sports forum, but the one study mentioned in the article is about everything kids do after school, including homework. It also found the effects strongest in high school, not younger. It feels like kind of the reverse of your situation (probably cultural in different regions), but I see a lot more overscheduling discourse here around the problems elementary schoolers in travel sports and not high schoolers with too much homework.

(I have neither a high schooler nor a kid in travel sports, so I'm not coming at this from either angle personally)

Kids at every age need and should have free time, they deserve it . I understand wanting to keep high school aged teens out if trouble, and some business is good, but overscheduling is never good.

I don't think I know a single competitive college bound high schooler who isn't overscheduled by those definitions.

You don't know a college bound high schooler who can't scrape together several hours of hangout time with friends every week? Really?

Not in this day in age anyway. When I was in HS yes, but weren't as busy or had as much homework. And I find it hard to believe that ppl haven't met overscheduled kids who were forced to do activities

I find it hard to believe that kids don't have free time. How much of that is because they're scrolling TikTok while they're supposed to be doing homework? When I was in HS it was just IM-ing other kids instead of doing our work, but same idea. I don't buy that kids have more homework now than they did decades ago, given the insane amount of griping about teachers giving less and less homework in the press and on here.

I don't understand parents wanting their kids to have a ton of homework either.

Because I want my kid to learn how to be successful. And part of life is doing work (even if homework seems mindless or redundant). Learning to do work and learning to manage one's schedule at a young age assists down the road. Further, without doing homework, how can you (and the school system) possible know if a student has mastered the material. I'm also not talking about hours and hours but the ten minute per grade up through 6th grade is a good gage of how much homework a child should have.

My child didn’t do any honors or APs and did fine at a T30 college.

DP. There's a big difference between not pushing hard through high school and being an ES kid who literally doesn't know how to manage your afternoon because your teacher is too lazy to assign 15 minutes of math worksheets - which is a common complaint these days on the public school forums (not everyone, not at every school, but common enough). If your kid is in college or out of college now, your kid went to school in a much different environment. So much has changed in a decade with elementary school educations.

No it hasn’t.

I managed my kids school so they weren’t taking Algebra in 6th or 7th and being pushed into ridiculous classes with endless homework.

You push your kids homework because you think it will get them somewhere… like the article says.

My child followed his passion.., which looked to you like over scheduling… and his passion led home somewhere.

Parents don’t understand that we are letting kids follow passion not pushing them .

PP you immediately responded to here. My kids are in ES. My 6th and 4th graders don't have homework.

You made assumptions that I: 1) was anti keeping kids busy with non-academic stuff and 2) push my kids to have a bajillion hours of homework.

And neither of those are correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't really see kids these days having much different schedules then my friends and I had in the Midwest in the 80s. Year round swim team from a young age, plus several other sports depending on the season or age, an instrument, etc.

I'm in the Midwest and that is what people do today. Competitive swim or hockey/baseball, plus another sport or two each season. Some do an instrument, but nobody calls out families for overdoing sports. Only if the kid is taking an instrument or doing academic enrichment is he "over scheduled." Meanwhile I'm side eying the elementary kid who can't make half his practices due to his "main sport", and when he shows up to games and practices he's a tired mess.

DP, but I do find it interesting that this thread is in the sports forum, but the one study mentioned in the article is about everything kids do after school, including homework. It also found the effects strongest in high school, not younger. It feels like kind of the reverse of your situation (probably cultural in different regions), but I see a lot more overscheduling discourse here around the problems elementary schoolers in travel sports and not high schoolers with too much homework.

(I have neither a high schooler nor a kid in travel sports, so I'm not coming at this from either angle personally)

Kids at every age need and should have free time, they deserve it . I understand wanting to keep high school aged teens out if trouble, and some business is good, but overscheduling is never good.

I don't think I know a single competitive college bound high schooler who isn't overscheduled by those definitions.

You don't know a college bound high schooler who can't scrape together several hours of hangout time with friends every week? Really?

Not in this day in age anyway. When I was in HS yes, but weren't as busy or had as much homework. And I find it hard to believe that ppl haven't met overscheduled kids who were forced to do activities

I find it hard to believe that kids don't have free time. How much of that is because they're scrolling TikTok while they're supposed to be doing homework? When I was in HS it was just IM-ing other kids instead of doing our work, but same idea. I don't buy that kids have more homework now than they did decades ago, given the insane amount of griping about teachers giving less and less homework in the press and on here.

I don't understand parents wanting their kids to have a ton of homework either.

Because I want my kid to learn how to be successful. And part of life is doing work (even if homework seems mindless or redundant). Learning to do work and learning to manage one's schedule at a young age assists down the road. Further, without doing homework, how can you (and the school system) possible know if a student has mastered the material. I'm also not talking about hours and hours but the ten minute per grade up through 6th grade is a good gage of how much homework a child should have.

My child didn’t do any honors or APs and did fine at a T30 college.

DP. There's a big difference between not pushing hard through high school and being an ES kid who literally doesn't know how to manage your afternoon because your teacher is too lazy to assign 15 minutes of math worksheets - which is a common complaint these days on the public school forums (not everyone, not at every school, but common enough). If your kid is in college or out of college now, your kid went to school in a much different environment. So much has changed in a decade with elementary school educations.

No it hasn’t.

I managed my kids school so they weren’t taking Algebra in 6th or 7th and being pushed into ridiculous classes with endless homework.

You push your kids homework because you think it will get them somewhere… like the article says.

My child followed his passion.., which looked to you like over scheduling… and his passion led home somewhere.

Parents don’t understand that we are letting kids follow passion not pushing them .

PP you immediately responded to here. My kids are in ES. My 6th and 4th graders don't have homework.

You made assumptions that I: 1) was anti keeping kids busy with non-academic stuff and 2) push my kids to have a bajillion hours of homework.

And neither of those are correct.

I’m responding to this

I don't understand parents wanting their kids to have a ton of homework either.

….
Because I want my kid to learn how to be successful. And part of life is doing work

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't really see kids these days having much different schedules then my friends and I had in the Midwest in the 80s. Year round swim team from a young age, plus several other sports depending on the season or age, an instrument, etc.

I'm in the Midwest and that is what people do today. Competitive swim or hockey/baseball, plus another sport or two each season. Some do an instrument, but nobody calls out families for overdoing sports. Only if the kid is taking an instrument or doing academic enrichment is he "over scheduled." Meanwhile I'm side eying the elementary kid who can't make half his practices due to his "main sport", and when he shows up to games and practices he's a tired mess.

DP, but I do find it interesting that this thread is in the sports forum, but the one study mentioned in the article is about everything kids do after school, including homework. It also found the effects strongest in high school, not younger. It feels like kind of the reverse of your situation (probably cultural in different regions), but I see a lot more overscheduling discourse here around the problems elementary schoolers in travel sports and not high schoolers with too much homework.

(I have neither a high schooler nor a kid in travel sports, so I'm not coming at this from either angle personally)

Kids at every age need and should have free time, they deserve it . I understand wanting to keep high school aged teens out if trouble, and some business is good, but overscheduling is never good.

I don't think I know a single competitive college bound high schooler who isn't overscheduled by those definitions.

You don't know a college bound high schooler who can't scrape together several hours of hangout time with friends every week? Really?

Even the overscheduled kids have several hours a week. Mine does. The people who are for more unstructured time are arguing for hours every day.

They also have a lot of free time during travel sports tournaments to do fun things like cause a ruckus at the hotel pool, play knee hockey for hours in a hotel conference room with their buddies, go to a professional sports game together in the evening, and eat meals together. The kids typically have a fantastic time. I'd rather be at the spa or on a hike though.

I don't think that free time isn't the same though.

Why?

It's just different, it's constantly supervised and there isn't much time for kids to go off and actually do what they want.

Also… my kids are home at normal times and still play at night with neighborhood kids… capture the flag, hide and seek, back yard football, go creeking etc.

We miss the occasional birthday which apparently is life altering to some.

[Anonymous]

Creaking*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't really see kids these days having much different schedules then my friends and I had in the Midwest in the 80s. Year round swim team from a young age, plus several other sports depending on the season or age, an instrument, etc.

I'm in the Midwest and that is what people do today. Competitive swim or hockey/baseball, plus another sport or two each season. Some do an instrument, but nobody calls out families for overdoing sports. Only if the kid is taking an instrument or doing academic enrichment is he "over scheduled." Meanwhile I'm side eying the elementary kid who can't make half his practices due to his "main sport", and when he shows up to games and practices he's a tired mess.

DP, but I do find it interesting that this thread is in the sports forum, but the one study mentioned in the article is about everything kids do after school, including homework. It also found the effects strongest in high school, not younger. It feels like kind of the reverse of your situation (probably cultural in different regions), but I see a lot more overscheduling discourse here around the problems elementary schoolers in travel sports and not high schoolers with too much homework.

(I have neither a high schooler nor a kid in travel sports, so I'm not coming at this from either angle personally)

Kids at every age need and should have free time, they deserve it . I understand wanting to keep high school aged teens out if trouble, and some business is good, but overscheduling is never good.

I don't think I know a single competitive college bound high schooler who isn't overscheduled by those definitions.

You don't know a college bound high schooler who can't scrape together several hours of hangout time with friends every week? Really?

Not in this day in age anyway. When I was in HS yes, but weren't as busy or had as much homework. And I find it hard to believe that ppl haven't met overscheduled kids who were forced to do activities

I find it hard to believe that kids don't have free time. How much of that is because they're scrolling TikTok while they're supposed to be doing homework? When I was in HS it was just IM-ing other kids instead of doing our work, but same idea. I don't buy that kids have more homework now than they did decades ago, given the insane amount of griping about teachers giving less and less homework in the press and on here.

I don't understand parents wanting their kids to have a ton of homework either.

Because I want my kid to learn how to be successful. And part of life is doing work (even if homework seems mindless or redundant). Learning to do work and learning to manage one's schedule at a young age assists down the road. Further, without doing homework, how can you (and the school system) possible know if a student has mastered the material. I'm also not talking about hours and hours but the ten minute per grade up through 6th grade is a good gage of how much homework a child should have.

My child didn’t do any honors or APs and did fine at a T30 college.

DP. There's a big difference between not pushing hard through high school and being an ES kid who literally doesn't know how to manage your afternoon because your teacher is too lazy to assign 15 minutes of math worksheets - which is a common complaint these days on the public school forums (not everyone, not at every school, but common enough). If your kid is in college or out of college now, your kid went to school in a much different environment. So much has changed in a decade with elementary school educations.

No it hasn’t.

I managed my kids school so they weren’t taking Algebra in 6th or 7th and being pushed into ridiculous classes with endless homework.

You push your kids homework because you think it will get them somewhere… like the article says.

My child followed his passion.., which looked to you like over scheduling… and his passion led home somewhere.

Parents don’t understand that we are letting kids follow passion not pushing them .

PP you immediately responded to here. My kids are in ES. My 6th and 4th graders don't have homework.

You made assumptions that I: 1) was anti keeping kids busy with non-academic stuff and 2) push my kids to have a bajillion hours of homework.

And neither of those are correct.

I’m responding to this

I don't understand parents wanting their kids to have a ton of homework either.

….
Because I want my kid to learn how to be successful. And part of life is doing work

Kids get too much homework, that's the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't really see kids these days having much different schedules then my friends and I had in the Midwest in the 80s. Year round swim team from a young age, plus several other sports depending on the season or age, an instrument, etc.

I'm in the Midwest and that is what people do today. Competitive swim or hockey/baseball, plus another sport or two each season. Some do an instrument, but nobody calls out families for overdoing sports. Only if the kid is taking an instrument or doing academic enrichment is he "over scheduled." Meanwhile I'm side eying the elementary kid who can't make half his practices due to his "main sport", and when he shows up to games and practices he's a tired mess.

DP, but I do find it interesting that this thread is in the sports forum, but the one study mentioned in the article is about everything kids do after school, including homework. It also found the effects strongest in high school, not younger. It feels like kind of the reverse of your situation (probably cultural in different regions), but I see a lot more overscheduling discourse here around the problems elementary schoolers in travel sports and not high schoolers with too much homework.

(I have neither a high schooler nor a kid in travel sports, so I'm not coming at this from either angle personally)

Kids at every age need and should have free time, they deserve it . I understand wanting to keep high school aged teens out if trouble, and some business is good, but overscheduling is never good.

I don't think I know a single competitive college bound high schooler who isn't overscheduled by those definitions.

You don't know a college bound high schooler who can't scrape together several hours of hangout time with friends every week? Really?

Not in this day in age anyway. When I was in HS yes, but weren't as busy or had as much homework. And I find it hard to believe that ppl haven't met overscheduled kids who were forced to do activities

I find it hard to believe that kids don't have free time. How much of that is because they're scrolling TikTok while they're supposed to be doing homework? When I was in HS it was just IM-ing other kids instead of doing our work, but same idea. I don't buy that kids have more homework now than they did decades ago, given the insane amount of griping about teachers giving less and less homework in the press and on here.

I don't understand parents wanting their kids to have a ton of homework either.

Because I want my kid to learn how to be successful. And part of life is doing work (even if homework seems mindless or redundant). Learning to do work and learning to manage one's schedule at a young age assists down the road. Further, without doing homework, how can you (and the school system) possible know if a student has mastered the material. I'm also not talking about hours and hours but the ten minute per grade up through 6th grade is a good gage of how much homework a child should have.

My child didn’t do any honors or APs and did fine at a T30 college.

DP. There's a big difference between not pushing hard through high school and being an ES kid who literally doesn't know how to manage your afternoon because your teacher is too lazy to assign 15 minutes of math worksheets - which is a common complaint these days on the public school forums (not everyone, not at every school, but common enough). If your kid is in college or out of college now, your kid went to school in a much different environment. So much has changed in a decade with elementary school educations.

No it hasn’t.

I managed my kids school so they weren’t taking Algebra in 6th or 7th and being pushed into ridiculous classes with endless homework.

You push your kids homework because you think it will get them somewhere… like the article says.

My child followed his passion.., which looked to you like over scheduling… and his passion led home somewhere.

Parents don’t understand that we are letting kids follow passion not pushing them .

PP you immediately responded to here. My kids are in ES. My 6th and 4th graders don't have homework.

You made assumptions that I: 1) was anti keeping kids busy with non-academic stuff and 2) push my kids to have a bajillion hours of homework.

And neither of those are correct.

I’m responding to this

I don't understand parents wanting their kids to have a ton of homework either.

….
Because I want my kid to learn how to be successful. And part of life is doing work

Kids get too much homework, that's the problem.

True

[Anonymous]

You have to I think be guided by the kid. They don't lead at young ages but what do they want to do/what are they good at? It could be sports. If it is soccer it is just fun rec soccer. If they don't like it; don't do it. Then comes travel which can be fun not crazy. If they like it and are good and want to take it to the next level then go ahead. Most kids will not want to and will not have the ability to. But if they do, support them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We know a girl who is in travel basketball, soccer and flag football and who also swims, runs and does "rec" lacrosse. It's none of my business and maybe she is desperate to do all of these things. But I feel like-- when does she just get to be a kid?!

Is she playing all those sports with adults?

Holy sh it yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are we all being honest about what teen boys do with unsupervised free time? Best case, my 13 year old is gaming.

Mine built an illegal fort on park land…woops

Mine does those things when we go camping as a family in the summer and leave all electronics at home. I love it. When he's home on a Sunday (mandated rest day), his buddies are constantly bugging him to play Fortnite (hate), or he's into trouble on the internet when I'm not looking (key logger). He's a great kid, but he's also a curious teenage boy.

And was brought home by police for trespassing in an abandoned home.

Sick