3 Reasons to Stop Over-scheduling the Family

The pressure of being the best parent includes endless after-school activities for the kids. Let’s rethink parenting and stop over-scheduling the family.

As young parents, we were told to keep the kids busy and they won’t be bored enough to look for trouble. This is true to some extent but overdoing it hurts the family.

Like anything in life, there must be a balance to strive for and this balance is different for every child and every family. There are 5 red flags when you need to stop over-scheduling the family.

The kids suddenly hate every after-school activity.
They miss their friends from school and the neighborhood.
The kids don’t know how to relax, even on home days.
You find yourself scheduling an activity when there is an opening.
School stress is affecting your child.

Stop-Overscheduling the Family

I’m going to preface this next advice with:

it’s not going to be easy, especially if you have more kids than adults in the family
it is worth every little improvement you can achieve

There are 3 main reasons why you need to stop over-scheduling the family. Actually there is probably more than just three but honestly, these are my top three reasons that I focused on during my journey to seeking simple life.

Teaching the family how to become more mindful
Family connections are stronger
Allowing time for learning, exploring, reading …

Becoming More Mindful

Have you ever stopped to wonder why the internet is FULL of advice for “how to say no” and “how to stop over-scheduling yourself”? As busy parents, we are exhausted and trying desperately to figure out why we are overwhelmed, stressed, and missing out on life.

We are amazed that we blinked and the kids are not so little anymore. The fear of not knowing who they are and missing out on them drives us to search for solutions to become more mindful within our own life.

Here is the hard truth. By over-scheduling the family, we are teaching the kids to stay busy and never slow down. We are teaching their brains that they need to always be doing something and going somewhere. We are creating the habitual need to never slow down within our children.

Maybe, just maybe, we can use the advice of slowing down ourselves and start breaking the habits we have taught the kids. Teaching them to find ways to slow down, become more mindful of themselves and learn to love non-scheduled free time.

Family Connections are Stronger

News flash! The kids are only young for so long. Making time for family game nights, camping, backyard bonfires, or spontaneous soccer games builds memories and strengthens the family bond.

Over-scheduling the family with endless activities doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for family fun. Finding ways to connect with the family and build your relationships is time well spent. You will be investing valuable time with your family so that your relationships continue to grow when the kids leave the home to start their own lives.

Allowing time for …

When kids are constantly busy you may find that their school life becomes more stressful. Do you see them picking up a book to enjoy? How about taking a moment to enjoy nature’s beauty as toddlers do?

When you are learning to be more mindful, you are allowing time for learning, exploring and reading. When they are constantly busy with activities they may not develop the skills they need to learn how they need to study. Finding study techniques that work for them may become difficult when they’re own busy brain overwhelms them.

Time is a huge factor when learning any skill and if there is very little time, stress and overwhelm are common factors when educating over-scheduled kids. We all want what is best for our children but keeping them so busy that they are stressed and overwhelmed with school doesn’t help them. There has to be more of a balance and each child is different.

How to Stop Over-scheduling the Family

There are 5 steps that help busy parents to stop over-scheduling the family.

Schedule a maximum of 1 after-school sport per child during the school year.
Swimming lessons are required but are done during the summer.
Explore other sports or activities through summer camps, or other school breaks.
Be comfortable saying “No” to events or activities.
Resist the urge to fill the calendar.

BONUS: Are you frequently overwhelmed yourself? Is the busy mom life getting to you? Do you look at this list and start to wonder where to start? Sign up to get access to the VIP Portal, there is valuable content available for you now.

This list will help your family. It will take time to simplify the schedule but it works. The one after-school sport per child may not mean one night per week per child. As they become older the sports and activities are multiple times per week. However, if you see the value and your child absolutely loves that activity then it is worth it. Just remember to create some balance by using the other steps listed above.

Sticking to these 5 steps helped our sanity as busy parents. As our three kids got older we found that picking one sport for the school year simplified life. We still had years where we were run off our feet taking kids to their activities most nights. However, in those years we were able to drop a kid off at their activity and take the others home to enjoy some downtime.

Building up the connection with the family and making those moments count really helped strengthen the bond we have as a family. Learning to say no to events and other activities has helped find a balance between family time and other fun activities. We found small ways to stop over-scheduling the family and are enjoying our journey to seeking simple life.

Will you simplify your family schedule?