My husband and I are on the complete opposites sides of the spectrum when it comes to kids and signing up for extra curricular activities. He thinks we should sign kids up for ANYTHING they want and we, as parents (read: me) will just figure out the logistics.
Currently our son is signed up for soccer. Soccer practices are every Wednesday evening with games on Saturday morning. He wants to try Tae Kwon Do again which meets two times a week as well on Tuesday’s and Friday’s. After going to his Back to School night, my son found out about Cub Scouts and you guessed it, he wants to sign up for that too. Which Cub Scouts meets on Monday’s after school.
So if we sign him up for everything, then he will have something on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday with only Thursday and Sunday off. Aside from all of that, he is starting first grade. The first time he will be in school all day long…more work, less play.
Now me…I feel like signing him up for all of that is WAY too much. I think he should choose between Tae Kwon Do and Cub Scouts. Personally, if he wants to do Cub Scouts I think he should do that. He would be doing it with kids from his school, etc. But I get why my husband wants him try Tae Kwon Do again…it’s good discipline and will help him focus better. But he really hated it before. I personally think the only reason my son wants to sign up again is because his sister earned a white Karate headband and learned how to punch her fist through a block of wood. I think once he did those things, he won’t want to do it anymore.
So what’s your opinion on this subject? When do you think it’s just too much scheduling of kids time? And believe me, I am all for letting our kids try new things to establish interests, etc…but I just personally think this is too much.
Could he do TKD when soccer ends? Do u have to pay for a certain amount of TKD lessons up front? If not, maybe try to do all three and see which he likes best and then pare down to just two. Or if he likes all three and is still doing ok in school then maybe he can handle all three. Although it might be less about his bein able to handle it and more about you not wanting to drive him around so much. If that's the case then you should just pick for him since your the parent. Thy cant have everything they want right??
My daughter has soccer for Fall, Girl Scouts all year and I think that's good for her. I don't live with her father, I have two boys with my man so we will certainly go through this soon enough I am sure (they are only 4 and 2 right now) but I do feel that I want my kids to learn about all sorts of things, yet not too much at once. I tell you Girl Scouts and Soccer is going to be HARD this year as Girl Scouts and Soccer fall on the SAME NIGHT which means from school until bedtime I will be on the road with my two sons bringing my oldest to and from these things!
Had I knew that soccer was going to fall on the same night as Girl Scouts this year I would have had her wait on one of them or switched a day with her father so I didn't have to lug my poor little boys around all night! (no babysitters here for us EVER) ugh!
I am sooo not any help on this!
We had 3 kids in baseball/softball this past season with me being newly pregnant and miserable. We had ball 6 days a week, most of those days were overlapped by 2, sometimes all three of the kids playing/practicing at the same time… with one vehicle out of commission… *sigh*!!