Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids is asking to play 4+ sports a season.
Basketball, Lax, Flag football, Baseball and tennis. best advice in these situations? Kid is 8. How do we start narrowing down?

with that many it sounds like none of them are serious and all of them are rec teams that have very short seasons. as long as you are ok with all the driving and the small fees, what's the harm? as soon as he starts asking for pricy clubs and clinics is when you have to make him choose.

Agree

Limit the sports with no time limits. Baseball is a total time suck and will monopolize the entire weekend. Without baseball... you and your kid will have a lit more time!

Anonymous wrote:My kids is asking to play 4+ sports a season.
Basketball, Lax, Flag football, Baseball and tennis. best advice in these situations? Kid is 8. How do we start narrowing down?

with that many it sounds like none of them are serious and all of them are rec teams that have very short seasons. as long as you are ok with all the driving and the small fees, what's the harm? as soon as he starts asking for pricy clubs and clinics is when you have to make him choose.

My kid is 17 and until this past year, she did 5 sports. Cross country (varsity), crew (varsity), soccer (formerly travel, now rec), rec basketball and rec flag football. We finally dropped the flag football this year because we did fall crew in addition to fall XC and soccer and a 4th sport was too much. She's my only kid and that's a factor. I let her be the decision maker on what sports she does and at what level. In the past she's done dance, gymnastics, field hockey and track. (And at one point she was on 3 soccer teams at once. Insanity.)

You are allowed to decide how much your kid takes on. It can be a lot.

Anonymous wrote:Your kid won’t even play any of them in high school

So look at what the immediate value is, or short term value. Anything else (play at a higher level, the benefit of school sports for feeling connected, etc) is bonus.

1 team per season

Once team commitment is made, okay to sign up for a non-team thing (eg, tennis lesson) around that schedule

Anonymous wrote:

Very much disagree with this "commitment" concept in rec where you have to have be 100% attendance or you can't sign up. Obviously your mileage may vary, but I've had a kid in multiple competitive sports along with a rec sport and the number of conflicts was fairly low, and if the kid missed 1-3 rec games in a season, I'm not gonna sweat it, and that's more playing time for the other kids.

there is a big difference between 100% attendance and knowingly signing up for two team sports that have the same game days. Joining any team should be seen as a commitment. It hurts the rest of the team when a kid doesn't show up- if just one kid is missing sure its more playing time, but if multiple kids have that attitude, you can easily end up in a situation where you are struggling to not forfeit, or playing with 1 sub. Its rough on kids. We have been part of rec teams where 1/2 the team had a very casual attitude towards both games and practice. It can get very frustrating. Also, rec sports like flag football and soccer often only have 6-8 games in the season- if you miss 3 you have missed 1/2 the season.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 8 I'm going to strongly disagree with a hard "1 sport 1 season" mentality. Assuming you are playing rec, most of those come with at most 1 practice and 1 game per week. And these practices/games aren't exactly high intensity. Also, as above, some of these sports will more just be a class or training session once per week with no games. It would not be difficult to fit in 2-3 of these sports within a season, if your family can handle the logistics. And assuming two different sports with games, the chances of consistent conflicts will be quite small.

Once you get to more competitive levels, the time commitment will go up, but you will be glad your kid got a chance to dabble in a larger variety of sports before narrowing down.

Its not the 'intensity' its the logistics and the commitment you make to the team. If you find a league where one plays games on Saturday and the other plays on Sunday, and you are willing to coach (hence giving you control over the practice schedule) you can make two team sports a season work. (This is assuming you are willing to make your family life primarily about running your 8 year old around). If they both play on Saturday? chance of conflicting baseball and lacrosse games is super high.

PP here. I agree if the logistics are too much for your family, absolutely take a step back. We personally didn't feel like going to two activities per weekend (significantly more nowadays) was "making our family life primarily about running our 8 year old around", but I understand every family has their own constraints and priorities. And +1 for coaching if you need it to give you the scheduling edge.

Very much disagree with this "commitment" concept in rec where you have to have be 100% attendance or you can't sign up. Obviously your mileage may vary, but I've had a kid in multiple competitive sports along with a rec sport and the number of conflicts was fairly low, and if the kid missed 1-3 rec games in a season, I'm not gonna sweat it, and that's more playing time for the other kids.

Anonymous wrote:At 8 I'm going to strongly disagree with a hard "1 sport 1 season" mentality. Assuming you are playing rec, most of those come with at most 1 practice and 1 game per week. And these practices/games aren't exactly high intensity. Also, as above, some of these sports will more just be a class or training session once per week with no games. It would not be difficult to fit in 2-3 of these sports within a season, if your family can handle the logistics. And assuming two different sports with games, the chances of consistent conflicts will be quite small.

Once you get to more competitive levels, the time commitment will go up, but you will be glad your kid got a chance to dabble in a larger variety of sports before narrowing down.

Its not the 'intensity' its the logistics and the commitment you make to the team. If you find a league where one plays games on Saturday and the other plays on Sunday, and you are willing to coach (hence giving you control over the practice schedule) you can make two team sports a season work. (This is assuming you are willing to make your family life primarily about running your 8 year old around). If they both play on Saturday? chance of conflicting baseball and lacrosse games is super high.

In the morning I look did you

Certainly I limit! What works for the family? Adults have jobs. Adults have a work schedule. Any EC have to work within the family schedule. And homework. And other family obligations. Is one child taking-up too much time? That matters too. No one child gets to frame the family schedule well beyond the other children in the family.

At 8 I'm going to strongly disagree with a hard "1 sport 1 season" mentality. Assuming you are playing rec, most of those come with at most 1 practice and 1 game per week. And these practices/games aren't exactly high intensity. Also, as above, some of these sports will more just be a class or training session once per week with no games. It would not be difficult to fit in 2-3 of these sports within a season, if your family can handle the logistics. And assuming two different sports with games, the chances of consistent conflicts will be quite small.

Once you get to more competitive levels, the time commitment will go up, but you will be glad your kid got a chance to dabble in a larger variety of sports before narrowing down.

Anonymous wrote:Your kid won’t even play any of them in high school

sorry your kids didn’t make the team

Your kid won’t even play any of them in high school

Anonymous wrote:No sports. Tell them to do something productive.

Having fun IS productive, especially for a child.