How much is too much for kids sports?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have one kid who does 2 travel sports and practices 5 days a week. He loves it and still has a ton of energy after hours of practice, so I don’t mind it.

+1

I don’t understand all these “well your kid is never going to get a scholarship or be an Olympic athlete” posters. Ummm ok, that’s not the goal for most people. Athleticism is an attribute that carries over to many other areas of life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have one kid who does 2 travel sports and practices 5 days a week. He loves it and still has a ton of energy after hours of practice, so I don’t mind it.

+1

I don’t understand all these “well your kid is never going to get a scholarship or be an Olympic athlete” posters. Ummm ok, that’s not the goal for most people. Athleticism is an attribute that carries over to many other areas of life.

Sorry quoted the wrong post

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid has a better chance of becoming a doctor than a recruited athlete.

Do you know how many doctors are former athletes?

Former NBA players, or former hs basketball players?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have one kid who does 2 travel sports and practices 5 days a week. He loves it and still has a ton of energy after hours of practice, so I don’t mind it.

Some kids are just built like this. I’m a mom of 3 and 1 of mine is similar. Wants to be doing multiple sports at a time, including a travel sport. Never seems to tire of it. On days off will randomly go outside to shoot hoops or run around. Since early childhood, he’s been my kid up at the crack of dawn ready to go for the day whereas my other 2 need more rest.

People who don’t have a high energy/driven kid don’t understand it. Which is why they should just stick to parenting the kid they have and stop making assumptions about what is right for all children.

OP said it would take a big toll on the family. I am surprised how many people are brushing by this. My daughter does dance and gymnastics and we live about 20 minutes away from each studio. The days she does those activities I’m away from the rest of my family at least 80 minutes but I often just stay if it’s a shorter class. We have never been able to carpool because it hasn’t worked out to have an anyone close enough at the same level. I try not to drag my younger one whenever possible but we don’t always have two adults. Or we do but means the evening is handing the kids off as soon as a parent gets home and then back and forth and maybe going back out for other activities. I also have a child who would do even more activities but it’s really not good for our family. So she does SOME but not everything. So far we have been able to keep two nights a week totally free of activities and that is great. I think if you have an only it’s very different or a nanny or something but it isn’t clear that is OP’s situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have one kid who does 2 travel sports and practices 5 days a week. He loves it and still has a ton of energy after hours of practice, so I don’t mind it.

Some kids are just built like this. I’m a mom of 3 and 1 of mine is similar. Wants to be doing multiple sports at a time, including a travel sport. Never seems to tire of it. On days off will randomly go outside to shoot hoops or run around. Since early childhood, he’s been my kid up at the crack of dawn ready to go for the day whereas my other 2 need more rest.

People who don’t have a high energy/driven kid don’t understand it. Which is why they should just stick to parenting the kid they have and stop making assumptions about what is right for all children.

OP said it would take a big toll on the family. I am surprised how many people are brushing by this. My daughter does dance and gymnastics and we live about 20 minutes away from each studio. The days she does those activities I’m away from the rest of my family at least 80 minutes but I often just stay if it’s a shorter class. We have never been able to carpool because it hasn’t worked out to have an anyone close enough at the same level. I try not to drag my younger one whenever possible but we don’t always have two adults. Or we do but means the evening is handing the kids off as soon as a parent gets home and then back and forth and maybe going back out for other activities. I also have a child who would do even more activities but it’s really not good for our family. So she does SOME but not everything. So far we have been able to keep two nights a week totally free of activities and that is great. I think if you have an only it’s very different or a nanny or something but it isn’t clear that is OP’s situation.

She said they would miss family dinners etc. I get that, it’s a negative. But for some us, the benefits of having our very active children engaged in something they love outweighs that negative. Only OP can answer that question for her family.

I do think it’s unfair to allow the kid to try out for the team if she wasn’t going to allow it. This type of discussion with her kid should have happened earlier IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter has made the team for a sport that she has been doing for many years. She currently does 4 hours of practice a week right now. Practice will be 3 days a week for 3 hours at a time (Mon, Tues, Thursday from 5-8.) She is only 9, currently in 3rd grade. This would be for next school year. Skipping practice is highly discouraged plus travel competitions. This is going to put a strain on our family, miss family dinners, etc. She really wants to do it, and I am actually discouraging it - this isn't a parent living through their kid.

Would you let your kid do it for something they have worked very hard for?

That’s completely insane for a 9 yr old child. Be the parent and simply say no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter has made the team for a sport that she has been doing for many years. She currently does 4 hours of practice a week right now. Practice will be 3 days a week for 3 hours at a time (Mon, Tues, Thursday from 5-8.) She is only 9, currently in 3rd grade. This would be for next school year. Skipping practice is highly discouraged plus travel competitions. This is going to put a strain on our family, miss family dinners, etc. She really wants to do it, and I am actually discouraging it - this isn't a parent living through their kid.

Would you let your kid do it for something they have worked very hard for?

That’s completely insane for a 9 yr old child. Be the parent and simply say no.

They cant say no because the Joneses 3rd grader does 4 hours of soccer practice every night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your kid has a better chance of becoming a doctor than a recruited athlete.

Do you know how many doctors are former athletes?

Former NBA players, or former hs basketball players?

Why are we only talking about basketball?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have one kid who does 2 travel sports and practices 5 days a week. He loves it and still has a ton of energy after hours of practice, so I don’t mind it.

Some kids are just built like this. I’m a mom of 3 and 1 of mine is similar. Wants to be doing multiple sports at a time, including a travel sport. Never seems to tire of it. On days off will randomly go outside to shoot hoops or run around. Since early childhood, he’s been my kid up at the crack of dawn ready to go for the day whereas my other 2 need more rest.

People who don’t have a high energy/driven kid don’t understand it. Which is why they should just stick to parenting the kid they have and stop making assumptions about what is right for all children.

I have a friend who had a (now adult) child like this. The only time the kid was fully at capacity was at summer camps where they go non-stop from 7 am until 11 pm. As a college student this kid still goes non-stop. Resume looks amazing of course.

According to my friend it was somewhat hard on the family, but it was valuable enough for them to see their child flourishing this way that they made it work - helped to have a SAHM for sure.

Since none of my kids are like this, if I hadn't heard it from her I'm not sure I would have understood it/believed it. But now I do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter has made the team for a sport that she has been doing for many years. She currently does 4 hours of practice a week right now. Practice will be 3 days a week for 3 hours at a time (Mon, Tues, Thursday from 5-8.) She is only 9, currently in 3rd grade. This would be for next school year. Skipping practice is highly discouraged plus travel competitions. This is going to put a strain on our family, miss family dinners, etc. She really wants to do it, and I am actually discouraging it - this isn't a parent living through their kid.

Would you let your kid do it for something they have worked very hard for?

That’s completely insane for a 9 yr old child. Be the parent and simply say no.

It may be insane for you but it wasn’t for us. My daughter thrived in this type of active environment. She is now a rising senior and still doing her activity at an intense level.

[Anonymous]

I actually don't think 9 hours a week is that hard on my family. He has practice for 3 hours, 3 days a week from 430-730. He comes home from school at 3pm. Snack, HW, rest. Then i drop him off and go home and make dinner or take the other kid to his stuff. Then we eat dinner at 735 when he gets home (we live 5 minutes from the gym). So we have family dinner every night still. Baseball disrupts that more than gymnastics.

We travel once a month from October-March for a meet, but somewhat locally (VA and MD). So only 3 required overnight stays and we had fun with all of them.

I don't know, it is what you make of it.

[Anonymous]

9 hours a week, with only 3 evenings and a bit of travel, sounds fine. Many figure skaters train from 5-8 am, 5 days a week because that's the only time they can get consistent ice time. They also do off-ice a few afternoons.
Gymnastics is relatively easy in comparison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:9 hours a week, with only 3 evenings and a bit of travel, sounds fine. Many figure skaters train from 5-8 am, 5 days a week because that's the only time they can get consistent ice time. They also do off-ice a few afternoons.
Gymnastics is relatively easy in comparison.

Oh yes figure skating is tough due to ice time. Luckily the gym is much easier to get into. We are moving to 12 hours this summer (330-630, 4 days a week) then probably keeping 4 days in the fall. Eventually when he gets older it will approach 20 hours but still in the evenings just multiple days a week (and later into the evening). Boys move up levels at a slower rate than girls because there are some skills that are age limited.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have one kid who does 2 travel sports and practices 5 days a week. He loves it and still has a ton of energy after hours of practice, so I don’t mind it.

Some kids are just built like this. I’m a mom of 3 and 1 of mine is similar. Wants to be doing multiple sports at a time, including a travel sport. Never seems to tire of it. On days off will randomly go outside to shoot hoops or run around. Since early childhood, he’s been my kid up at the crack of dawn ready to go for the day whereas my other 2 need more rest.

People who don’t have a high energy/driven kid don’t understand it. Which is why they should just stick to parenting the kid they have and stop making assumptions about what is right for all children.

OP said it would take a big toll on the family. I am surprised how many people are brushing by this. My daughter does dance and gymnastics and we live about 20 minutes away from each studio. The days she does those activities I’m away from the rest of my family at least 80 minutes but I often just stay if it’s a shorter class. We have never been able to carpool because it hasn’t worked out to have an anyone close enough at the same level. I try not to drag my younger one whenever possible but we don’t always have two adults. Or we do but means the evening is handing the kids off as soon as a parent gets home and then back and forth and maybe going back out for other activities. I also have a child who would do even more activities but it’s really not good for our family. So she does SOME but not everything. So far we have been able to keep two nights a week totally free of activities and that is great. I think if you have an only it’s very different or a nanny or something but it isn’t clear that is OP’s situation.

I don’t think anyone brushed by this and is saying OP has to sacrifice the family. I think people are saying this amount of practice is not unreasonable for a kid who is passionate about their sport, and that if possible OP should try to make it happen. And tbh the tryout never should have happened if OP can’t swing it.

However, they are where they are now. If it’s 100% not doable w/o spiraling the family into chaos or financial stress, then it’s a no. But I don’t think it should be a no because of all the people claiming it’s too much activity for a kid or because the kid won’t make the Olympics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have one kid who does 2 travel sports and practices 5 days a week. He loves it and still has a ton of energy after hours of practice, so I don’t mind it.

This is my daughter. Except I DO mind it. Its exhausting.