Anonymous wrote:I think you're over scheduled. Our kids play one sport per season.

+1

Anonymous wrote: I would just kiss travel sports good bye. I know I will get crap on here but it's bullshit. It's not like most of these kids are going to get scholarships it pro offers. It isn't worth the stress imposed on family time.

This post is an example of what seems to be a fairly common misperception about the benefits and goals of travel sports. For anyone who is interested, there is a good discussion of this topic in a thread in the Sports and Fitness forum titled Does Travel Soccer Really Provide an Edge.

OP, we have three kids and an activity schedule that was similar to yours when our kids were younger. It worked fine overall because we have a local grandparent who loves to see the kids play sports and wonderful carpool relationships. Failing those things we would have followed the one activity per season advice you've received here. Our high schoolers now have very intense sports commitments 5-6 days per week. Our friends who dont have local relatives have hired college students to help with driving. All of us have extremely tight bonds with our carpool families.

One sport per season per kid. Period. There is no need for two different soccer leagues in one season or soccer plus baseball in the same season.

Only go to birthday parties that your kids are good friends with.

We do one sport or major activity (such as theater) per kid at a time. They can do one or two afterschool club depending on the cost. We also have religious ed 1x per week (non negotiable until confirmation) plus scouts (2x per month so manageable).

In order to really honor your commitment and allow family and down time it is just not reasonable to sign your kid up for more than one major commitment per season, especially when you have multiple kids.

When do your kids have time to just be kids, not participating in an adult-supervised activity? When do you have time to hang out as a family, without driving from one organized activity to another?
I treat all sports only as a means to 1) get some exercise; 2) hang out with friends; and 3) learn how to work together as a team. You kids have only a teeny tiny chance of becoming professional athletes, statistically. So, by having them play multiple sports, you are just making your live truly miserable.
Also, while bdays parties with friends are fun, they don't have to go to all of them.

We have left our kid in the "care" of the coach when we needed to drop another kid off.

We had baseball in Palisades and Soccer in Carter Barron. We informed the baseball coach that we will be back and made sure he had our contact information in case of an emergency.

My oldest is now in 4th grade and starting last spring got himself to and from baseball practice and games that were local.

Travel or Rec Soccer - not both.
Since you are at the level of travel - you probably have been with these families for a bit so you should be able to carpool.

Say no to parties unless it is the Best Friend OR you have nothing else planned that day.

I guess it depends on your definition of "making it work."
If you want your kids to be in 2 different teams and attend every birthday party no matter the cost in family time, time together, rest and relaxation time, then you continue what you are doing and hire someone to help you with the driving.
A PP has an au pair, maybe you could hire a college student to be a "driving sitter".


If making it work means spending time together as a family and not running around all weekend frazzled, then cut back to 1 activity and explain how important family time is to your kids. Explain they can rotate through birthday parties (i.e., Aiden gets to go today because last week he had to miss because Liam's friend had a party)

One sport per kid per season, no more. With 3 kids, it is too much to have one doing both travel and rec soccer, and one doing soccer and baseball. Have each kid pick the thing they enjoy the most, and drop the other.

Do you have a partner involved in this?

drop one of the soccers for the oldest kids. drop soccer for the Ker. Turn down bday party invites.

Your schedule is crazy.

You say "I don't think the kids are overscheduled" and then go on to show that one child has 2 different sports game within hours of each other at 2 different locations.
And you have 3 kids not past elementary school, 2 of whom are in more than 1 activity at a time.
That is the very definition of "over-scheduled!"

You decide that family time is more important than activities.

We have three. If they are close in age we made one of our kids play up so they have the same schedule. One activity per season.

Honestly, you have to just accept that you can't do it all, and repeat multiple times. I had a very si,ilar schedule to yours and was going nuts trying to figure it all out and I finally told the kids they had to pick the bday parties they attended and had to pick if they were willing to miss a soccer game for a bday party or vice versa. You can't be everywhere at once.

Another vote for one sport at a time for each kid. If one really wants to do the travel team, then build car pooling relationships and accept that this kid will miss a lot of birthday parties and other activities.