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

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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][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]in my case I have 3 kids. Each kids is not overscheduled, they do 1-2 activities each but that’s about 5-6 activities I am driving them to. I am overscheduled, but each kid is not. They are of an age where I don’t have to take all of them with me all the time so they stay home and play with each other, do homework, whatever. But they aren’t available to run around the neighborhood or have playdates with other kids if I can’t be home or I can’t pick them up later due to a conflict. I don’t see any kids running around anyway in our neighborhood.  It’s the parents stretched thin in cases like mine.[/quote]

I think neighborhoods are different. I have friends who live walking distance to the school and they have impromptu play dates even though kids all do many activities. We used to live in a house where my son was in the same class and BFFs with the kids at the bus stop. They would play right after school and before sports or be on the same soccer or bade team and carpool.

We now live in an area where families are more affluent, attend different schools and not many young families because young families can’t afford to live here or would not pick this type of neighborhood as a starter home.

My friends who live in a townhouse hang out everyday at the local playground in their community.[/quote]

My kids are too old to hang out a playground after school. That all stopped after about 1st grade.[/quote]

Kids stop playing at the playground in first grade? [/quote]

Pretty much. Most people have more than 1 kid and all this works up until about that age. Then when you add in varying kids ages it all kind of fizzles. The older kid doesn’t want to play at the park, or there’s a toddler or new baby and it just doesn’t work out. This was a blip when my oldest was about that age when we had the time and inclination and then circumstances changed.[/quote]

Wow, that just seems so young.[/quote]

My third grader would not be excited to go to the playground. [/quote]

Idk, I guess i was way different than kids are today.[/quote]

Don’t worry in my neighborhood there are kids of all ages running happily at the playground. PP must live in some weird snobby area where kids are too cool for playgrounds.[/quote]

+1. We live in a great neighborhood where kids still ride bikes and visit local playgrounds well into middle school. By that age they are just "hanging out" and chatting, sometimes on a swing or whatever, but they still get lots of unstructured outside time. It's wonderful. The kids that are overscheduled usually have the crazy type A parent that put them in travel sports or violin or whatever at age 9. [/quote]

You think it is crazy to put your kid in violin at age 9? I don’t have a violin playing kid but my kid did start piano at age 5. My boys played travel sports at 9. They are out riding their bikes now at age 14.[/quote]

I have yet to meet a violin parent or a travel sports parent who started it before middle school who isn't a complete loon. But I'm SURE you're totally normal, PP![/quote]

+100

Have yet to meet a normal, non-egotistical parent who put their kids in travel/club sports before middle school [/quote]

I have two teens in high school. Your kid has no shot at high school teams if they didn’t play travel/club/AAU in middle school. Most middle school kids played travel in elementary.

I am not an athlete but I have two athletic boys. [/quote]

DP: My kids went to high schools that let everyone play. One of ours is entirely unathletic and played three different high school sports, and has a leadership position in one. My other kid is pretty good at the chosen sport, but not recruitable, and was MVP and team captain in high school, plus they won their league championships all four years. All of this was reflected in their college applications and no one in admissions ever asked how good they are or whether they played travel. Outside of recruiting (which is a tiny percentage of high school athletes and was never going to be my kids), the kid who has the leadership position gets more of a bump in admissions than the kid who is most skilled and played on travel teams out of high school.[/quote]

My boys attend a school with over 2000 kids. There will be over 100 kids trying out for freshmen basketball. Same for soccer and baseball. I believe baseball doesn’t even have a freshmen team so your kid is competing to get a spot on the JV team that already has the freshmen from
Last  year. Our tennis team only has varsity. There will probably be a handful of open tennis spots for the 100+ kids trying out.[/quote]

Your kid has 250 freshmen boys and 100 of them are trying out for basketball?  I find that very hard to believe.  [/quote]

That is what I have been told. My kid is only a freshman and hasn’t tried out yet.

100 new kids try out. Some may be upperclassman who didn’t make the team last year?

I have heard this 100 number from various people. [/quote]

My guess is 100 kids try out for the three teams.  Not 100 new kids, or 100 freshmen.  Generally schools run one try out, and then split up into Varsity/JV and sometimes freshmen team.  So, a freshman, will be competing against 100 kids, but some of those kids will make Varsity or JV, and some will be upper grade kids who won't be offered a freshman team spot, and might even turn down a JV spot. [/quote]

Our high school will have over 120 boys trying out for popular sports. For some sports there is no freshman team, only JV and varsity. So yes, PP’s numbers are correct because the public high schools here are very large (too big IMO). Someone whose kids went to a HS where everyone got to play should probably sit this one out. They have no idea how competitive it is at some of the schools around here. Boys playing on top travel teams for years cannot even make JV sometimes. People whose kids go to private school really shouldn’t comment on what public school parents choose when it comes to sports. It’s not even remotely an apples to oranges comparison. I think we all just want our kids to have a chance to meaningfully participate in things in HS. Unfortunately for many large publics that’s a lot harder and requires a lot more preparation leading up to that point just to have a chance.[/quote]

I remember my friend’s son going to 530am Green Days last year for a very popular sport. 100+ kids are trying out for baseball or soccer and as pp stated, some teams have only JV and varsity.

At our high school, there is only one varsity tennis team. There are only 1-5 open spots per year so if your kid hasn’t played tennis a lot, your kid has no shot at making the tennis team. The kids who have done clinics once per week in elementary are not making our school tennis team.[/quote]

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