Over-scheduling a myth or not?

In our long car ride to the beach a few weeks ago, I was able to catch up on some reading in my magazines. I love to read my magazines. I find many good articles, recipes or helpful hints. I read one article about parents over-scheduling their children's activities. I have been one to always keep this in the front of my mind when signing my boys up for activities.

I did not do many activities outside of school for most of my 12 years. This was probably a combination of my parents not really "pushing" me to do extra activities and me not going after what I wanted to do. My parents came from a totally different culture and were very protective of all 5 of their children. I was child number 5 so all the energy had probably been drained by the time I came around. There were also double standards in my family, my brothers got to do lots more than the girls in the family. I am not complaining, this is just the way it was.

On the other hand, my husband played a lot of sports when he was young. He really enjoyed tennis and golf and is still a very good player in both. My husband is very competitive.

I would love to schedule my boys in everything under the sun (maybe stemming from the fact that I did not do much). I would like them to play sports, learn a musical instrument and be part of clubs. But I do keep a good schedule in check for them. In the fall, they are signed up for baseball (they have been playing for the last 3 years and really have fun) and an instructional basketball league. Baseball will keep us busy one evening a week and on Sundays at 11am, both for a few hours. Basketball will be on Saturdays at 9am. Both sports will last 2 months. I also wanted to sign them up for instructional golf, not sure yet. This would be one day a week for an hour. See how the extra activities just start adding up. In the winter, I will sign them up for basketball. It will be so cold outside that a good indoor winter sport will be great to keep them active.

I do have several reasons that I would like my boys to play sports:

1. I would like them to excel at a sport and have fun with it.
2. Keep them active.
3. It is a great way for them to socialize and meet new friends.
4. Increase their self esteem
5. As they get older I hope that sports will still be in their life and they would maybe be able to avoid drugs and alcohol.
6. Stay motivated to be in good shape.

I don't want my boys to burnout at the age of 10 or sooner. So I will try to set our limits and let them experiment with different activities, let them continue the ones they enjoy and drop the ones that are not important.

I was happy to read that over-scheduling is considered as 5 or more activities and that at any one time 60% of children participate in extra activities and about 1 in ten is over-scheduled. I will make sure that I stay in the population of those other 9.

The baby will be enrolled in My Gym again in the fall. This is a class for little ones to be able to climb, jump and roll around on a padded surface. It helps them gain strength and stability with some of the exercises they do. It is also a way for me to meet Moms.