I left a lengthy comment over here in response to Amy’s post about being overscheduled. My comment was so lengthy I am turning it in to a blog post. Exhausted maybe. Resourceful most definitely.
Amy — I could write this article 3 seasons a year. We are the poster family for overscheduled. What started as a need to fill in a couple of mornings for my nonnapping 18-month-old, continues today.
I’ll sound like a broken record, but…we have two kids who play travel volleyball with 2-3 practices per week and all-day tournaments every other weekend. At times we have one kid playing in Jessup and one in Germantown. The oldest needs to play as she wants to try out for her high school team next year. I feel sorry for my youngest as volleyball tournaments are so boring for him. I try to have the grandparents babysit him so that I can go for a few hours to watch the girls. Many tournaments I stay at home as my husband assistant coaches both girls.
As if that schedule wasn’t crazy enough, my middle who plays travel volleyball also swims twice a week. Swimming is after school and volleyball is at 6 p.m. She has developed good time management skills with her homework.
We were headed to an easy spring as my youngest expressed zero interest in playing a spring sport. I was relieved…more than I should have been. Of course, after hearing a couple of 1st graders chat about baseball or lacrosse. He wanted to play. I am at my best when faced with a challenge, so I worked on getting him off the waitlist for 2 teams and on to at least one of the teams. He’s now playing lacrosse. He loves it.
Throw in Sunday School for 3, homework, and possible tutoring for one of them as we are busy.
On the bright side, we could be busier. How so? My girls were in Girl Scouts through 5th grade. I am not mentioning Cub Scouts to my son. Nope, lips sealed. Cub Scouts is very time-consuming — so I hear — with weekly meetings and outings.
Our 4th season is a breeze. All 3 kids home. Husband home for part of it as he is an 11-month employee. We do swim team which means everyone swims 1 hour per day with swim meets on the weekend. It’s a family affair. My husband times races while I take photographs and run the swim team blog.
My only piece of advice…listen to your kids. I dragged…literally…two kids to ballet and tap when they were 4. We did not register for the next semester. Both girls wanted to float around like butterflies NOT learn ballet steps. My oldest was sick of piano by 5th grade. I let her quit — she channeled her creativity in to drawing and writing. None of the kids like basketball. It is the rare day when I have to drag anyone to practice or a game!
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