Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Back to routine...

It's Tuesday and activities are now in full swing.  That means that last night was our only night home this week.  That makes me sad.  Why?  Because, I'm a homebody.  I like to come home from work, put on my shorts and t-shirt (in winter...sweatpants and sweatshirt), strip off my makeup, put my hair up in a pony tail and relax.  To me, that means pouing a glass of wine and starting on dinner.  Last night we had a phenomenal shrimp scampi with pasta and veggies.  It means a relaxing dinner, not hurried in anyway.  It means a nice big cup of coffee after dinner and conversation with my family.

In reality, our nights for the rest of the week will look like this:

get off the bus, get snack, do homework, inhale dinner (likely something out of a bag that I made quickly), no wine (I'm driving my kids somewhere), get crap together, get in car, drive to _____ (soccer, dance, drama, etc.), wait an hour (play on blackberry), drive kids back home, shower, bed.

I think it's great that my kids want to play sports, dance, etc....but I wonder if in the end if it really is beneficial?  It's a lot of added stress in the evenings.  Are they becoming more well rounded kids with these activities?

What do you think?  What does your evening routine look like?

2 comments:

Andrew Opala said...

scampi with pasta! Again somebody didn't call to invite me over! Sheesh!

In terms of sports and activities, they need to do the things they love, and the things they need to, to learn to live, work and play with others.

And sometimes they just need to not be left behind and do everything everyone does.

You can also look at scouting - this is often overlooked - but it's the best place for kids to learn about keeping their word.

I think you need to balance it - In my family we have a 22 year old social butterfly who had every evening booked with lots of stuff and one 19yo who did nothing and has trouble socializing. Then we have two in between these extremes that played only baseball in summer and hockey in winter and have strong careers and have started families.

Probably the best thing is if you can hit it off with some of the parents that go to these things - it can be very enjoyable.

I would almost offer that twice a week in activities with each child is the best - then like life you have to choose and not be greedy thinking you can have it all - very important lessons for kids to learn these days.

Unknown said...

Great questions!Right now we are homebodys mainly b/c KLV is still young that said I want her to be involved but not so busy that she can't appreciate the solitude of home and family. It's hard!