Children's activities accumulate quickly

By Lisa Pemberton | For The Olympian • Published October 26, 2008

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I'm desperately trying not to become one of those parents. You know, the ones who book activities for their child's every waking second.

The ones whose lives revolve around soccer practices, scout meetings, dance rehearsals, chess tournaments, orchestra concerts, and weekend-long purebred dog shows?

And the ones who complain about the exorbitant costs, transportation hassles and lack of their children's commitment for all of those enrichment activities?

During the summer, I saw a reality television show that featured a professional nanny rescuing a family that was so overscheduled, the mom appeared to spend most of her life behind the wheel of her mini-van, shuttling from activity to activity, making idle threats to a bunch of kids who didn't pay attention to her.

The entire family was stressed out. I was stressed out watching them juggle such a hectic schedule. I thought to myself, "What were they thinking? I'd never let my kids get involved in so many activities that they hate it."

But I've since learned how easy it is to fall into the so-called hyper-parenting lifestyle. All of those activities can sneak up on you.

In August, we signed our daughter up for weekly horse-riding lessons.

Besides family swimming lessons that we took over the summer, it was her first real activity, and something that we felt she could easily manage with the rigors of second-grade homework. Besides, our young sons love hanging out at a horse ranch for an hour each week.

The riding lessons went so well, we decided to sign her up for a once-a-week ballet/tap/tumbling class. She loved the class, but the logistics didn't go as smoothly. Let's just say, keeping track of two ballet slippers, two tap shoes, tights, a leotard, a skirt, a water bottle and a hair scrunchy is a big job for a second-grader. And let's just say, keeping track of two busy toddlers in a stuffy waiting area that has a bunch of shiny, breakable trophies, and not enough seating, is a big job for a parent.

It took us a few weeks to get all of the kinks out of the new routine.