When do they take time to be a

I think I agree with the theme of your message here. With one stipulation. School work still needs to have a lot of parental support and encouragement. Other than that, I think over stressing your kid is the wrong way to go. If they are enjoying music lessons or sports, great. In that case, it counts as relaxation. If not, be sure to give the kids time to be kids. On the other hand, if your kids and free time means getting into trouble.. then budget away all their time.

My kids typically are not over extended like that. Usually they have 1 activity at a time, that is only 1 day a week. Things did get a little difficult a few months ago when I had all the kids doing something, and my oldest was doing 2 sports, each of which was 2-3 days a week. I ended up taking him out of one sport so he was just in basketball 3 days a week. But that was the first time he'd ever even attempted to do 2 things at once. But in the winter months for us it's not that big of a deal to have them being that busy. There's not much else for kids to do around here in winter months, and mine will typically sit around the house, watching TV or playing video games, and being rather bored! So getting them involved in things out of the house playing with other kids is certainly better than that.

My kids are not overbooked like that. If anything I need to encourage my son to do something other than want to sit on his butt more often.

Hmmm, I think it's a real dilemma for the poor child. We don't have kinds yet at the moment but we wouldn't want our children's time table to be so super packed next time which is really crazy!~

Thankfully my child is only two months old so i don't have this issue. But i really hope i NEVER have this issue. I mean i want my child to have fun and be able to do things like sports and other types of group activities but i don't want them to end up consuming his life.

Thankfully this year, my son isn't into things as he was last year. He choose not to be apart of the extras because they were taking away from his play time and his friends that he has in the neighbor hood. I enjoy not having to run from this ball game, to this practice, and getting to stay at home and enjoy my children. Last year was just rough, and I know as he gets older and he finds more things that he enjoys it will be back to running here and there, but hopefully he'll remember that there is life other than school activities, clubs and so on. Children need to be children and yes we all want the next sports hero, piccaso, or mozart, but we can't push them to be what they don't want to be.