North Texas Kids

Seek Balance with Kids Activities

 

by Kerrie McLoughlin

It makes my head spin to think about how overscheduled some families are these days: school, afterschool care, homework, dinner, sports or dance once a week, swim lessons or another activity twice a week, games, birthday parties and campouts on weekends. The range of extracurricular activities available to children today is mind-blowing, but of course we want our kids to have everything. But Jill Connors, mom of five, says, “I know friends whose kids are in school that are so scheduled that anytime they are home they are ‘bored.’”

So where’s the time for fort building, skateboarding, cops-and-robbers and other free activities that let a kid’s imagination run wild? Dad Jeff Pearlman is outraged by this overscheduling dilemma and wrote in a piece on CNN.com, “Kids are gifted with 18 years of childhood. … Yes, I want mine to do well in school, and learn the virtues of compassion and empathy and hard work. But I also aspire for them to jump on our trampoline until their legs sag from exhaustion, and ride their bikes up and down the street, … and chase down the ice cream man and watch in amazement as the pink petals fall from our cherry blossom tree.”