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.

How old is your kid? You definitely don’t sign up for a team sport and then just skip some weeks whenever you feel like it. Sports are socialization for kids. What do you plan to do on weekends instead?

I love having sports on the weekend. It gives us something to do, interact with other kids, exercise, get outdoors, learn, and have fun and I don't have to plan it!

If you and your kids would be happier with a calendar or berry picking and petting farms, OK! Nothing wrong with that. It doesn't sound fun to me and my kids would hate not having other kids around to play with, but if sports didn't work for your family, then no one is forcing you to sign up again!

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.

My children do swimming and tennis. They are now middle school/upper el aged. It works perfectly for us.

Practices for both are several days during the week. Every night actually, between the two. Since you compete as an individual, you can participate as much or as little as you want with weekend tournaments or meets. We will do (very) local ones and maybe once every 8 weeks during school year.

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."

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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 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.

Prioritize what is important to your family. DS has activities on Saturdays and Sundays. He doesn't have that many birthday parties, I think that diminishes once the kids get into older grades, and we rarely go fruit picking now. Even when we did go fruit picking it would be one day and easily worked around activities. DS still has time for playing with his friends and we could go fruit picking or hiking if we wanted to. We manage game days/nights and movie nights and the like.

But that suits us.

Most activities for kids, especially older kids, will involve a weekend commitment.

Each of my kids did a casual local rec league sport this year. We hated that it took up weekend time. They did too. There are friends birthday parties, out of town family to visit, other spontaneous events that we couldn't plan around.

We have always had friends who reply "maybe" to birthday parties because they don't know how long that tournament will go or if they'll have a game that day. That's hard especially the last couple of years when we kept parties to just a handful of kids and had to plan more intentionally.

My older one is a tween and still gets together with friends, but now it's riding their bikes to the 7-11 or whatever and gaining independence. He mostly hangs out with other kids who aren't on teams because the sports kids can't commit to a time.

And we do still "force" some strawberry picking and hikes as a family because family time is important to us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope ,we love having sports on the weekend.

Same!! It’s great for them both physically and mentally. Learning teamwork is a lifelong skill.

What would you do with your child if there were no sports on your weekend?

We would go on family hikes. Visit museums. Go strawberry picking. So many things to do!

This. Amazing how many obsessive sports parents simply cannot fathom this and say things like the above.

Yep. I feel like a lot these parents are failed athletes trying to live though their kids.

We mostly skip weekend activities because we have a second home we want to visit. Kids did so weekend soccer up there in the fall which was ok but they ended up missing a bunch because of birthday parties and other things we had to do at home. We spend the winter skiing up there so that’s sort of a weekend “sport” but we don’t do ski team for the same reason. When we stay in the city we go to museums, check out different restaurants, go see plays, etc, and usually have at least one gathering with friends. Our kids do an after school activity that does have weekend practices before performances a few times a year so that can also affect our weekends.
Our eldest is now in middle school and plays sports at school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope ,we love having sports on the weekend.

Same!! It’s great for them both physically and mentally. Learning teamwork is a lifelong skill.

What would you do with your child if there were no sports on your weekend?

We would go on family hikes. Visit museums. Go strawberry picking. So many things to do!

This. Amazing how many obsessive sports parents simply cannot fathom this and say things like the above.

I have three kids in travel sports and we still have time to go to the pumpkin patch or museums. It’s just not every weekend - which again, at the older ages, kids don’t want to do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope ,we love having sports on the weekend.

Same!! It’s great for them both physically and mentally. Learning teamwork is a lifelong skill.

What would you do with your child if there were no sports on your weekend?

You can learn these things without sports.

Yep. You can learn that through a dance team, orchestra, gymnastics, a theater troupe, etc.

Good luck competing at a higher level with any of those things and not having Saturday commitments.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope ,we love having sports on the weekend.

Same!! It’s great for them both physically and mentally. Learning teamwork is a lifelong skill.

What would you do with your child if there were no sports on your weekend?

You can learn these things without sports.

Sports are great because you can 1) do all those things while 2) staying in shape and getting exercise. Think of it as killing two birds with one stone.

You really can’t see the value in other activities? Not everyone likes playing sports.

No, we do other things but people are constantly confused here about why other people like sports. Do you not see value in health and fitness?

Do you not see that organized sports are not necessary for “health and fitness?”

Don’t enroll in any. No one is trying to convince you to do so. But please enroll your kids in something to meet other kids or you will be posting in a few years about how horrible and stressful the transition is to middle and high school. My kids are in sports for social reasons and because they like it. I see with my oldest how transition to middle and high is so much easier since he knows more kids from other schools.