Reply to Am I the only person who doesn't have her kids in evening activities?

Forum Index » Off-Topic

Reply to "Am I the only person who doesn't have her kids in evening activities?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]  Frankly I don't have the energy to take them. The playdate from time to time is enough for me and they haven't requested evening acitivites. We have dinner together. I occasionally have to work in the evening or attend a PTA meeting, but usually we have dinner together and unless DH is late it includes him. We let them watch TV (hanging head in shame) as long as homework is complete and they hang out. They go to bed early and rise early so there's only so much time.

Am I in the minority? [/quote]

Like many others we vowed not to over schedule our kids ...but when your kids writes in home journal how much they love gymnastics and girl scouts ...and you want to make sure they can swim since it is a life skill ..already that's three activities.  We try to balance so we have free time on the weekends so we can go to birthday parties, take the kids to the county fair, go out on scooters etc.

Being completely honest, when we didn't have the kids in activities during the week, we didn't do much more than dinner as a family, homework, and tv and possibly iPad games.  There was no playing board games, taking the kids outside to play etc, because we were more likely to end up staying at work longer and just getting home in time to get done what we needed to 5:30 for DH, 6:30 for me) and by the time we got thru dinner and homework, kids taking bath and preparing for the next day, we were tired and wanted to get the kids to bed so DH and I could have our time.  We would have to get home a lot earlier to really have time for fun, quality time.  So due to bad scheduling karma this session, I find the kids have several weekday activities that require me to get up earlier (and I'm not a morning person)  so I can get in earlier.  I leave on time (well actually working slight overtime each day because I arrive earlier), we eat dinner earlier as a family, the kids get to do something fun once or twice during the week, they are motivated to get homework done at aftercare, it's easier to get them in bed on time because everything has started earlier and they get to sleep earlier.

If you aren't in a situation to do activities, that's one thing.  I just remember growing up and never being able to participate in anything during the week unless I had transportation because my parents had long commutes to work.  Yes, we ate dinner as a family but I don't remember having fun quality time during the week with my family when we were eating at 7 and had to be in bed by 9. I always hated listing my hobbies because the only hobby I could have for a long time was reading.  I also found it was intimidating picking up a new sport or activity when other kids had been playing longer, had gone to clinics and sports camps etc.  So basically I wanted to either be in a position that I work a part-time schedule so I can pick the kids up early enough that we have time for us to go to the park, play monopoly or do something fun where they get our undivided attention OR have a full-time schedule with enough flexibility that my kids can participate in atleast one thing during the week that they really want to do that they wouldn't get to do otherwise.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics