Sports or no sports? - Page 2

[Cascadian]

It really is a fine balance.

I know families whose lives really are ruled by sports schedules - practices, games, fundraising. One family I know has the girls do an hour of skating in the morning before school, every morning, then another sport after school. They're 8 and 10, but 'competition focussed'. Other families have kids in different sports, and I'm always hearing "We did 3 games on Saturday, bunch of practices on Sunday, had to go to 1/2 game for each child, was late for one.." etc. etc. etc.

Then there are the families whose lives revolve around one sport and giving the child every advantage by putting them in related activities to enhance their showing in the other, eg. pairing intensive ballet classes with ice skating/gymnastics because they complement and will lead to wins in competitions.

I tend to be more laid back, I guess. I definitely want my child to do one sport to a level of competence, and we chose rhythmic gymnastics, mostly for the pure exercise, social times, gross motor skills, concentration. Yes, I had an agenda. DD loves it and it's her 3rd year.

It's all about what YOU like as well and are willing to do. 6 am practices? Tons of $$$ for gear? Games, rain or shine? Then there's the 'parent culture' in the sport...that's a big one for me..

Did I even answer your question?

[annethcz]

We're pretty open to our kids participating in sports, as long as it fits in with our schedule. My older kids all played sports when they were preschool to younger elementary age. After that, my boys got sick of sports and decided not to continue. My girls still dance and are involved in gymnastics.

I think it's often a matter of trial and error to find out what works for your family. Some families don't mind running all over the place for lessons and games, other families prefer to stay home. I'm okay with activities- although I limit each child to 1-2 activities at a time, and I do try to schedule things so that we have a few free days each week.

[neptunemama]

My younger dd is a gymnast. She loves gymnastics, is on the competitive team at a nearby gym, and practices 3x/wk for 4 hrs. It's a lot. But she wants to do it, we don't push her to do it. It is a sacrifice for our family b/c she's not supposed to miss practice, and her schedule makes vacations difficult. She does miss some due to our traveling but we'd go away more often if she wasn't doing this sport.

My older dd isn't really into sports at all. She just started playing tennis after having it in PE at school. She has it 1x/wk for an hour. Not sure if she'll stick with it after the lesson series is over. She's more into reading and writing than sports.

[wildmonkeys]

I would say a strong yes to physical activity. We do have to work it into our schedule - just as we have to work my own and my husband's workouts into our schedule - as part of a healthy lifestyle. I look around and see how unfit some children and adults are and I just can't say yes enough to doing something active.

My sons have each tried a variety of things (only one at a time) and I have tried to emphasize some activities that they can stay active with throughout their lives. (Fencing & tennis for example) Non of it has been too extensive with the exception of my oldest son's baseball in recent years. He is really passionate about it. He is not a superstar, but hie is a good player and he is getting so much out of it, that I don't mind it disrupting our schedule for 8ish weeks. He is very shy and lacks some confidence in other areas of his life (for instance, he was offered a trumpet solo at school and declined) but is more bold at baseball - last night he played up with an older team who was short a player for the playoffs - he helped them win and felt really good about himself. So it is about more than baseball, you know? Likewise, he has a nice coach and there are really nice families with kids on his team so it turns out to be pretty fun and social for our entire family - we like family dinners too, but have enjoyed picnicking on the sidelines with friends as well.

So I would say, go for it and find the balance that works for everyone and keeps the family healthy and happy!

[wildmonkeys]

Also, I did want to say that most of the time our schedule is pretty sane, but every now and then it comes together all crazy and I might be one of those people whose weekends sound terrible, but the reason I would be prattling on about our schedule being nuts is because it would be atypical. So that might reassure some who hear horror stories.