For monetary reasons as a child, my parents limited us to have one kind of activity at a time. I could either be taking dance or an instrument. Soccer or softball, etc. In some ways I like this idea as a way to limit the amount of time spent in structured versus unstructured activities. do you have a philosophy about this? Will you let your child be in more than one activity if they want to? What's your limit? And why?
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I think it is such an individual choice. We live in a tiny apartment in NYC and it's hard on all of us to be stuck inside for hours on end. My daughter is also very social and thrives on being externally engaged ALL. THE. TIME. Which is exhausting. That said, I felt very over-committed when I was in grade-school (swimming, skating, piano, gymnastics, t-ball, etc.), and I want to avoid that for my kids.
Right now she has dance/creative movement one afternoon a week (her babysitter takes her); theatre class afterschool one day a week, and swimming class on the weekend. That feels like the right balance for now, but sometimes it's tempting to think about adding a language, or a sport like soccer into the mix. But funds and time are always a consideration and I think we'd have to swap one in for another if we wanted something new.
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I usually aim for 1 per kid (right now we have one activity only plus preschool) for my own sanity but I would let them decide as they get older I think, if it's reasonable money and logistics. I did a lot of dance and music growing up but it always felt like my decision. However I do wonder about my poor mother having to ferry me around and what my brother was doing all that time
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We do two - swimming and gymnastics. Swimming because it's really important -- my parents live on Lake Huron -- and gymnastics because she needed a physical outlet in the winter. Over the summer we don't do anything.
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We've done 3 for LO 1 but one is always short term like swimming.
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Right now we do two which seems manageable. Who knows what she'll want once in school. I can see Girl Scouts and/or an instrument being added into the mix and then we'll have to see how we can best fit things into the schedule.
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@autumnlove: I think another short term one seems reasonable.
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We're taking an activity break right now but we've only done one maximum so far (age 3.5 and in full-time preschool/daycare). There just isn't much time on weekends to do more and we like to have our family time too. I remember doing like 8 different things at a time as a kid and I really don't want to have to ferry her around like my parents did for me.
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7 comments