Reply to How many sports/activities does you child participate in?

Forum Index » Elementary School-Aged Kids

Reply to "How many sports/activities does you child participate in?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Holee crap. Where is the unstructured time?![/quote]

There isn't. Have you seen your neighborhood?  Where are the kids? Not playing, not biking, not running around in the woods, parks, getting dirty and creating new games. Learning how to navigate life, friendships, and more. You know, being kids!!!  They are in academic classes, religious classes, language classes, travel sports at age 8.  Swim lessons, piano lessons, private instrument lessons, private sports lessons etc....  Parents want to guide their kids like puppets into some bizarro perfect life they have in their mind. That leaves kids in organized activities or planned care for 10-12hrs a day?   And they wonder why kids have ADHD, anxiety, depression, learning disabilities, and can't handle being on their own until they are 13+ years old. College suicides have quadrupled in the last 10 years. But they know a 2nd language, can follow a cult, and get straight A's so they will be just fine.  :roll: [/quote]

:thumbup: I'm with you. I often wonder why parents are signing their kids up for so much but then there is always the excuse that they are bored or need to burn off energy. So let the kids be bored and figure out how to entertain themselves. Let them go out and play. I don't get it, most of these kids won't go to college on scholarship and almost certainly they will not become professional athletes so what's the point?[/quote]

They have fun and develop friends and skills like the importance of time management and discipline. It also builds confidence, develops focus, and teaches kids about emotional control. Also, research shows that children who play organized sports are frequently healthier and physically stronger than their less athletic peers — and they are smarter as well.[/quote]

NP here.  No one is saying one organized sport a season is a bad thing for kids.  That is one practice a week and one game a week.  The PP is talking about parents who have their kids in multiple activities that causes them to drive their multiple kids to multiple places every day.  Kids usually end up spending more time in the car going to their own and sibling's activities than they actually do at their said activity.  That is not healthy.

Kids need unstructured unsupervised play OUTSIDE.  Most kids get very little, if any of that.  
[/quote]

Multiple sport family here.

My kids bike to most of their practices.  How far do you think these things are? Also why would a sibling attend practice? [b] That's really an odd assumption. [/b]

Also when exactly do you think these practices start? Try evening. What time do kids get home from school? Try 3pm. Do the math.[/quote]

What is really an odd assumption is that you think everyone has practices/activities in biking location and your kids are old enough to do that on their own.  It also an odd assumption that sports practices start after dinner.  I have never seen any start after 6pm.

So lucky you that your kids can bike to their practices, ours are 15-30min away in the car depending on sport, location, and traffic.  It is not worth driving back home for a 60min practice.

Siblings go because they can not stay at home alone and no one else is there.  I have 3 kids under 9.

Practices for us are either 5 or 5:30pm.  My kids come in from the bus stop at 3:55pm.  That leaves us 45min or so to get a snack and do homework.  We walk back in the door by 6:30-7pm and it is dinner and then it is too late to play outside.  This is for one child's sport once a week.  I do this for 2 out of 3 of my kids.  The youngest is 5 and isn't in a sport yet.  So the kids get 3 days off a week to play with friends. 
 [/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