Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bottom line is that American kids play sports on the weekends. Other than that there is not much more to American life once the kids get too old to enjoy those ‘family hikes, zoo and museum visits’ lol

I grew up as the kid of immigrants and our family spent every weekend at friends’ houses for dinner and hanging out until late into the evening. The kids would all just play with each other.

Americans don’t really do this …other than have the occasional bbq and invite a couple of friends over a few times a year maybe. So their kids’ sports fill their weekends. Otherwise there is not much else for them to do!

Since college applications want a laundry list of achievements and activities Americans have little choice but to sign their kids up as young as possible to find their "niche" because hanging out at the neighbor's house during all your down time isn't exactly going to set you apart from the pack when it comes time to apply.

Yes, your six year old playing soccer just like 90% of the other kids is their ticket to Harvard. Yup. For sure.

Correct, but note that the one who did nothing on the weekends is going to have a much harder time. We are all in the same rat race.

If only there were options between “sports every weekend” and “nothing.” Oh, wait. Good news! There are!

In your warped mind nothing = not sports? That's a you problem. Because nothing means moping around and being a couch potato, like literally nothing. I would think a black and white thinker like yourself could figure that out.

A good compromise can be doing seasonal activities. My kids (at least for now when I have more control…) do sports fall and spring, which leaves the late fall/winter/summer weekends open for more family time, camping, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just curious what these kids are going to do on weekends in their teen years when they are not established in an organized sport or activity. I personally just think it’s short-sighted, but it’s none of my business.

Your imagination is pathetically limited.

Right?? My 8th grader and I are counting down to this coming weekend where we have nothing planned!! (She’s not in sports or a regular weekend activity we have just had 2 busy weekends in a row)

We are going to read, we will take turns switching the laundry, we’ll probably order in Mexican and watch a show, go to the pool for a few hours one day. She may meet a friend at the park in walking distance.

It’s our idea of a perfect weekend

Anonymous wrote:I’m just curious what these kids are going to do on weekends in their teen years when they are not established in an organized sport or activity. I personally just think it’s short-sighted, but it’s none of my business.

Your imagination is pathetically limited.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your kids don’t enjoy playing sports, you wouldn’t understand. No one (well very few parents) is making them play - my girls adore their activities - makes them so happy. I would never deny them this joy so that we would have more time for hiking and museums (which we also do.) I’m not bashing your family for not doing sports - please stop accusing my family of being “overscheduled” when we are all happy and doing what we like. Different strokes.

That's great for your family. I mentioned my kids' friends being overscheduled because they have no "free" time. For instance dd's best friend has activities every single weekday and mornings and afternoons on weekend days and on the rare opportunity she gets to sleep over she complains that she never gets to just draw or play a board game because she's always running to activities. And the parents complain about how exhausted they are and how gas prices are up and how far away the games are but they don't think about just scaling back a bit because "the kids will get into too much trouble."

Maybe she really enjoys it all but likes the chill time when she has time to chill. Maybe your kids complain at school about not getting to do activities when their friends discuss what they do and you don't hear those complaints. Maybe your kids know not to ask to do certain things because they think you will say no but they really want to. Maybe she wants to drop something and is worried her parents will say no.

There are lots of possibilities. We would all be better off if we stopped judging each other and let people go about their lives.

Or maybe she means what she says and she’s sick of her parents overscheduling her every day of her life.

We like sleeping in, making late breakfast together, and planning weekend activities around our moods and the weather. Definitely avoid activities that regularly meet in the weekend for our kid, though that doesn’t mean we never have weekend commitments. It just means we don’t sign up fir soccer or swimming on a weekend morning. Tho DD has expressed an interest in doing t-ball next year so that might go out the window then. Still, I love our lazy weekend days. We might go hiking, see a movie, have a picnic in the park with friends, drive to the beach, or spend the afternoon baking something fancy to take to our neighbor’s BBQ later. We’re good at coming up with stuff on the fly and we like mixing it up.