Overscheduled

We've had a rough month or two around here. Tempers are short. Kids are tired. No one is getting to bed on time very often.

And I've realized that as we are counting down to the last day of school (17 days!), I am also counting down the last days of all of the kids' various activities. One more Girl Scout Meeting, two more Circus classes, two more swimming lessons, one last baseball game...

Looking back, I can see the tipping point - where things went awry. That would be when baseball began. We did okay with a couple after school activities but adding Baseball to the mix did us in. Two practices per week. 1-2 games per week. Practices that run from 530-715 on a school night. When our kids are usually in bed by 730. For our just-turned-7-year-old it has been too much. And has rippled through the rest of the house.


So we are excited for summer to come, but we have also been re-examining our plans for the Fall and what the kids will be involved in. The problem is that there is SO MUCH they want to do. "If you get to choose TWO activites to do at a time..."  "Drama Club and Circus Class." "Oh and soccer - Dad wants to coach." That's not two...

How did we get here? With something every. single. day? And how do we pull back? So that I don't spend every afternoon rushing them to do their homework so we have time to read before bed? My kids - all kids, really - are so much happier when they have time to just play, or hang out, or read, or go to bed early...


So we are going to try that 'two activities at a time' in the fall. And we are going to cherish our unscheduled summer (with just a couple weeks of camp scattered in there) and see if we can't reclaim our balance. All of us.