Reply to What's wrong with a kid being "overscheduled"?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To the folks that highly value unstructured kid-led playtime (I think it's important too!), but have been disappointed that kids are not outside roaming the neighborhood for your kid to play with, what have you done from there?  Just given up and your unscheduled kid plays alone every day?  Have you texted parents of classmates and their friends and asked them for a playdate?  (Do your kids have friends?)  Invite them over -- I don't believe you that no one has time for some playdates.  My kids do lots of activities and so do most of their friends (we like it this way, thanks) and we arrange playdates all the time.  My kids have several a week.  Surely you have the bandwidth to do this since you are not dealing with EC activities.  You could even also sign them up for a few afternoons of school aftercare (I'm not even kidding) -- it's typically just unstructured playtime.   [/quote]

Aftercare at school is not the same thing at all. School has rules and guidance for what kids do and how. At our school, the paras yell at kids for climbing up the slide instead of sliding down. Very different from 2 or 3 kids tooling around outside unsupervised and having to think, argue, cooperate, decide, keep track of time, etc.[/quote]

Also, jeez, don't let perfect be the enemy of the good.  My point is that there are plenty of way to get your kid unstructured playtime even if you don't have some idyllic neighborhood that you have created in your head and even if it doesn't look precisely how you describe.  :roll:  :roll:   [/quote]

That is my point. You seem to think my desire to have kids play together on their own is some weird, old fashioned ideal. Um it’s the easiest thing to do. You let two kids of a similar age outside in the yard and let them play. It’s just hard for me to do as the parent of an only child in a town full of extremely scheduled young children. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with aftercare. Im saying that doesn’t address the issue at hand. [/quote]

It’s not hard to put your kid in an activity or two.   If you can post here you clearly have free time.  My only should not do activities just to be your child’s playmate because you refuse for your kid.   My parents refused me activities and they were super selfish.  I’m not doing that to my child.  [/quote]

It's not that easy for some ppl to just put their kids in activity or two. I'm sorr y your parents refused you, maybe they had reasons, beyond they were selfish. Maybe not all kids want to be in activities [/quote]

Why isn't it?  Most counties and DC have low-income waivers.  If you were willing, you'd find a way.  Not all kids do, but the parents here haven't even tried them and are bashing other parents for having their kids in activities to justify not having them in activities and bragging about unsupervised play dates for young kids...speaks volumes.[/quote]

And if there are ways around certain obstacles that let kids play sports, great, but for some its not aa easy as you think.[/quote]

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