If a child wants to do all those things and can handle the work required, then it is perfectly fine. But a kindergartener doesn’t have a whole lot of personal choices about their day-to-day activities. And what I was referring to are parents that simply make their kids do all these things. It puts an excessive burden on their already limited attention spans, and by the time they get to me, they often are not in a good state of mind to sit down for an hour of work.
And kids aren’t necessarily good at time management and figuring out what is a reasonable number of activities to be involved in. Heck, some adults aren’t very good at that.
The big problem with “well-roundedness” is that having a wide array of talents and interests will help you get into a high-intensity field like, say, medicine, but then at the first sign of trouble in that field, your problems are blamed on a “lack of focus”.
Yes, this has been an issue for me, though I wouldn’t change a thing.
Then there are parents who let their kids pick up activities, try them out, and then don’t let them decided what they’re going to stick with and what they’re going to drop. I went through that, and even though I’d clearly shown serious dedication to martial arts (ie, training an average of an hour a day, six days a week, 50 weeks a year, for five years, and never complaining about it), my parents insisted for about three years that I had to sacrifice two days of training per week for something else.
And I could go into parents who force their kids into religious activities (as mine did), but that’s an entirely different rant, because that’s an entirely different evil than just overscheduling.
Good point, Ninja. If the kid is loving what they’re doing, then why would a parent try to make them do other things? Well, I can see making them try other things, just to get a feel for them, but if they don’t love them, let them do what they love.
I think there’s a fine line there. You don’t want your kid to hopscotch from activity to activity, quitting because they’re bored or because it’s getting harder. I see nothing wrong with keeping a child in an event that they begged to join and now want to drop two weeks later. Finish the season, finish the course, get at least one belt, then you can explore something else.
But I still stand against overscheduling a child younger than high school age. That’s cruel.
And the really sad thing is that if you aren’t noted as a ‘special player’ by the age of 11 you may as well give up on structured hockey altogether.
Well, were the dance lessons all separate classes? When I was four, my mom signed me up for dance lessons-ballet, tap and “tumble.” It was a blast, but it wasn’t anything very heavy duty-we met in the church cafeteria and had a little recital, but that was it.
Other than that, I was in Girl Scouts, and one summer my cousin and I attended an art class every other week. That’s about it. Oh, and I played the clarinet, but practice was always during school hours.
They were all different classes. This particular school was run by a former professional dancer. The weekly classes were 30 minutes long, and there was a huge big fancy recital at the end of the year, everything from little girls who could barely walk standing in a line and pointing their tiny toes to seniors in high school whipping around the stage doing intricate and involved routines. So this particular girl was taking three dance classes as week plus soccer in addition to school. The costumes for the recital weren’t cheap either, about $50-$60 bucks each. I felt a bit like an underachiever, because Ivygirl only had one costume for the recital and some other girls had three or four costumes because they were taking so many classes.
Do you have a job?
Of course I do. So does my husband. We just make it a priority that there must also be fun. It’s all about balance.
Do you have no fun?