Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

[LadyFish]

Chase, who's 8 plays Little League. He has Cub Scouts and seems to be involved with everything under the sun. Megan, who's 4 takes dance lessons and is in T-Ball. Between sports and school programs there is something, sometimes a couple of things each and every night of the week and always on Saturday.<br /><br />Between the two of them, they get home from school during the week, race around to get their gear and off they go until 9-9:30 every night.<br /><br />I really think its ridiculous for kids this age. When I was in school most of our activities were immediately after school. All 5 of us were able to have time to do our homework, sit down with the family for a proper meal and go to bed at a decent hour.<br /><br />Last night it was only 46 degrees. Chase had practice at 6:00 and the game at 7:30 which ended at 9:30. The kids had only their thin uniforms on, their little hands were frozen and they were exhausted. I was really proud of Chase in the 6th inning. He hit a triple and brought two runs in. But the point is the little guy was freezing and exhausted.<br /><br />I think this is too much pressure on kids today. It way too late by the time they get home to do a proper job on their homework. You want them to be involved but at what expense?

 

[FLATHEAD]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

Your probably right LF , but organized sports and such is way better than the alternative.

 

[JB]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

I think you are right, LF. <br /><br />Too much organization and too little spontaniety. <br /><br />Too much planned for them and too little opportunity for creativity.<br /><br />Yes, children need to learn teamwork and discipline, but they also need to learn how to make their own decisions and what to do about temptation.<br /><br />If they are protected from learning critical skills now, they will botch tomorrows challenges in a much more catastrophic way.

 

[JamesCoste]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

I have 3 kids: ages 11, 6, and 5.<br /><br />We let the kids play one sport at a time. Thankfully, they all play soccer.<br /><br />My two younger kids have only one practice during the middle of the week and one game on Saturday mornings. Their practice starts at around 5:15pm and ends at 6:30. My wife normally has supper ready for us when we get home by 7pm. The kids are in bed at 8pm.<br /><br />My oldest, has practice twice a week (Thursday and Sunday afternoon) and games most Saturday's. He plays "travel" soccer and has a tournament once a month or so that can be two games a day for both Saturday and Sunday.<br /><br />Between soccer and church activities, our plate is plenty full. I have wonderful in-laws that watch the kids after school (2:30pm) and their homework is done before we get home from work. We review it, but it is done.<br /><br />Personally, I would never enroll my kids in a sport that kept them out until 9:30pm on a school night. Kids need their sleep. <br /><br />On a separate note, I'm not a fan of t-ball or baseball at all, especially for younger players. It's a fine sport if you are pitching, catching, or batting. For the other players on the field, some of them never touch a ball during an inning and their heart rate doesn't get up other than when they "take the field". For the most part, the kids simply stand around for so much of the game and they can't keep warm on a cool night.<br /><br />Congratulations for Chase hitting a triple! That will be a positive memory for a long time.

 

[kenimpzoom]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

My 9 yr old son plays baseball right now. Luckily he only has it for 2.5 months. He used to be in Boy scouts, but we dropped it (my fault not his). During baseball season, we would go light on scouts.<br /><br />They pretty heavily regulate practice times for base ball. Some games do start at 8 pm, which I dont like, but that is how it is.<br /><br />My 3.5 yr old daughter only has dance. I recon she will play t-bal when the time comes.<br /><br />I have told them you will get a maximum of two activities. None of them will dominate thier lives. As they get older, I think we will narrow it down to one.<br /><br />My son is a bit different, if he doesnt have someone telling him to do something, he will just veg out in front of the TV. We constantly kick him outside. He loves it outside (hunting/fishing), but just doesnt have the inititative to think of things himself. That has me a bit worried.<br /><br />I know a lot of people that the kids never have time to breathe. The kids like it and are not forced, but I think kids need a break and just need to have fun sometimes.<br /><br />But this is a different world these days even from 20 yrs ago. You have to keep the kids busy or the bad elements will get to them.<br /><br />Ken

 

[tomatolord]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

I have two boys 8 and 6 and all of their friends go play in multiple leagues till 8 at night. One kid went from soccer practice to basketball practice. <br /><br />When I was a little kid we did all this of these sports by ourselves at the playground after school. We did organized sports in middle and high school.<br /><br />My sons have really good arms and good aim, they could easily be pitchers - the one dad said why doesn't he play baseball - I turned to AJ and asked him "do you want to play baseball" and he said No. I turned to the dad and said "if he does not want to play then I will not force him to. I would rather wait and see what HE wants to play. This guy then turned to his son and asked him if he wanted to play baseball and the kid yelled NO! and then he said "well you are going to play anyway".<br /><br />Now I had a scholarship to play D1 Lacrosse, was all state in high school - my dad encouraged us to play sports but NEVER said we had to play any particular sport - in fact my dad was a HUGE basketball nut, we had a backyard court over the garage but he never pushed us to play bball - we did not really like it.<br /><br />If the kid wants to play then let them play - school work 1st then play time.<br /><br />I think we are one of the few parents that tell their kids to go outside and PLAY <br /><br />I told my wife that as these kids get older you will see that they will not be playing 1/2 of these sports becuase the level of effort needed to be good at them is only worth if it IF you are having fun.

 

[tommays]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

The flip side is the other KIDS hanging at the mall who dont have parents who can be bothered to be involved with there children or get them involved in anything worth while<br /><br />AND does the child really want to do it OR are they being forced for the parents pleasure ?<br /><br />tommays

 

[Tyme2fish]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

Don't all of you parents know that the "School system" "Sports Organization" know whats better for your child than you do? <br />You must relinguish now your children to the "State" in order to produce quality offspring.<br /><br />(Circa 1939 Germany)<br /><br />Cheese and rice: Can't we just let kids be kids and play with their playmates and make forts out of cardboard boxes.All this organized carp is too much for them. Let their own minds dictate what is fun and play.<br /><br />Father of three and Grandpa of three.

 

[QC]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

I have a couple of comments. We have three boys 10, 12 and 17. All three have played baseball and hockey and one has played soccer. We have never forced them. My oldest actually quit playing baseball when he was 11 and then came back with a vengeance when he was 13. I thought he would never catch up, but he passed by all of his friends and made his high school team. Quite an achievement in this town . . . and it happened because of his initiative, not ours.<br /><br />We also kick our boys outside to play. I am concerned most about the 12 year old, who is addicted to World of Warcraft (WOW) on the computer. Wonder where he got that from Anyway, he is not currently playing any sports and although we are trying to encourage him, we will not force him.<br /><br />Late games stink, but I believe that the real issue is that our kids have waaaaay more homework than we did. This bothers me a lot. Sports teaches them how to react to a variety of personalities, good coaches, bad coaches, nice kids, bullies, success and failure. Excessive homework teaches them to hate school and learning and reading and exploring and to only live for the weekend. I hate that. I would rather that they see each day as an adventure, than to dread Sunday night and worship Fridays. Stressing them out to get good grades is not going to make them better humans, sports might . . .

 

[JB]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

I have three girls and a son. They are now 50, 48, 47 and 40. All have done very well in this world. All made their mistakes when they were young and had Dad to back them up and help them heal and move on.<br /><br />When they were pre-teens they were in scouts, pee wee football, volunteer groups, etc. They had time to play, to explore life a bit, and to go fishing either alone or with Dad.<br /><br />When they were teens they got jobs, bought their own clothes, music, phones and later cars (Dad usually provided the down payments and maintenance), car insurance, etc. They learned how to deal with life in addition to public school curricula. When they screwed up they had a safety net that mitigated the consequences.<br /><br />They do not believe that life or the Government owes them anything. They are responsible for themselves and the consequences of their decisions, even when those consequences are just bad luck.<br /><br />You don't learn how to do that by having every minute of your youth and adolescence programmed to prevent you from learning hard life lessons.

 

[LadyFish]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

I guess my biggest concern is are parents finding the right balance. I totally believe every child needs structure and dicipline but when their whole life revolves around it when do they have time to be kids?<br /><br />Unstructured play leads to creativity and problem solving without dicipline or supervision. This is a good thing. Not enough of it IMHO.

 

[kenimpzoom]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

I have told my 9 yr old all the time, go bang on these kids doors and find someone to play baseball with. We have a big lot infront of the neighborhood. He says no one wants to play outside. They all want to play video games. My son has to be told to play video games.<br /><br />When I grew up we were always playing sports. I did not like organized sports, but I liked to play.<br /><br />Ken

 

[heycods]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

My KIDS are 80, 89 and 72, and they are a hand full, about to run us to death

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

LF remember your roots! 46 degrees is darn comfortable to a kid! That's Spring weather in VT and we are lloking forward to it <br /><br />Yes kids do have alot on the plate and it is scary. I just can not fathom how smart the children will be when they are our age.<br /><br />I think it is better to complain about all the activities/things they do instead of wondering what we can do to keep them out of trouble and occupied.

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

Funny you should bring this up. I have to sign Steph (4yo) up for soccer and Tyler (10yo) up for softball in the morning. Tyler has done baseball, dance, piano, art, basketball, etc. She really enjoys the athletics but is not very good at it. She is great at the arts though. She has the initiative and drive to play but not enough to practice. I think she does it just to see freinds. We live in the boonies and she only sees freinds at school.

 

[Heinz CA.]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

Hmm well here's our schedule: Karl(7 yr old son) only baseball so far, just started a few weeks ago and ends in early June. This is 3rd year for us and yup i get roped into asst coaching AGAIN(hey i can pitch to short people). We have one practice a week(starts at 5 pm till 6:15-6:30 so i get off early, will start 530 when days get longer) and a game every Sat. a.m. or afternoon. With this schedule we can still get all hmwk, playing w/ his buds after school, dinner, school projects(paper mache bee last weekend(2 days of work!!) woohoo and me til 1 a.m. by fireplace w/ blowdryer to make sure all dried!) but anymore sports would kill us as I'm a single parent - even when i don't have him, i still see him and sometimes have to get him to and from practice if his mom can't, this is about as much as we can handle , but maybe mnore in summer??? We ALWAYS make time for homework tho, and he does well that way(3 straight A's in a row in spelling!)but it is tough, i wouldn't want to push it too much more, would cut down on our hanging out time

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

yep I think they have way to much preprogrammed stuff, and I was watching some show last week about 9th graders choosing a college major. what a crock. while some kids know what they want at 16 most dont nor do they have enough information to decide.<br /> myself I knew what I wanted but not how to achive it and other than that the main decisions I was trying to make was how to ask the cute girl at the front to the dance.<br /> but I do have a few friends that played to much sports at to early an age and are now disabled from it.<br /> one was an awesome pitcher in the middle and high school years and was a mostly shut out pitcher.<br /> so far he has had 3 surgeries on his sholder and two on his elbow and one on his wrist and it started at about age 25 and was due to the stress of pitching at such an early age in skeletal development. ask him now if it was worth it.<br /> to many coaches and parents push way to hard to win at any cost.<br /> sayings like walk it off and no pain no gain and then the derision if you back down due to an injury.<br /> I have other friends that are in their mid forties with knee replacements due to foot ball in high school, ask them if it was worth it.<br /> and a cousin who is rather beat up from Lacrosse .<br /> I tried it, no thanks

 

[bootle]

Re: Do kids have too much on their plate these days?

Most kids in America today are extremely fortunate just to have a plate.<br />Take a good look at the Asian American kids and you are indeed looking into the future.