Is your child too busy?

Recently I found myself asking if my five-year-old daughter’s after-school life is getting too busy.

 

To be honest, I’m frazzled enough as it is, trying to combine working on a small start-up along with being a mum. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a tiger mother who enrols her child in language classes and expects her to be fluent in three languages by the time she’s nine. I am so not that person! However I have noticed that the calendar is getting more and more crowded.

 

There’s Lucy’s piano lessons one day a week, swimming lessons another afternoon and then in September she will be starting Ladybirds with The Irish Girl Guides; that’s three afternoons a week where she will be a busy little bee. On top of all that, there are texts from other mums, wanting to arrange “playdates” outside of school hours, as well as birthday parties at the weekends.

 

At this point, I now ‘owe’ three of her friends playdates, as she has been on playdates at their homes and it is only polite to repay the favour.  I haven’t done this as I have been extremely busy moving house over the past few weeks. I often wonder how mums with three and four children manage! How do they do it? I’m beginning to feel a lot like a mammy taxi with all the car runs. I dread to think of what it will be like as she gets older.

 

Interestingly, studies show that children from homes with higher income bracket tend to be the busiest when it comes to their extracurricular activities, which is a tad worrying. Maybe it’s down to competitive parenting and bragging rights? Who knows, but it can’t be good for the kids at the end of the day.

 

For now, Lucy has enough on her plate, so there won’t be any more new activities or classes. I’d never push her to join or do anything she doesn’t want to do and most of the time it’s actually her idea to join these things. I do think it’s really important for kids to be kids, have free play, whether it’s playing on their bike or just playing with their friends. Kids need “down time” just as much as us adults, in order to recharge their batteries.

 

So every now and then, Lucy and I will get into our jammies, hop into my bed, put a Disney DVD on, snuggle up and just chill out. We’re all busy these days, but I think we sometimes need to remind ourselves to stop and smell the roses and most importantly, enjoy the now. 

Jillian Glancy is a freelance journalist and expert tea drinker. When she's not playing Princesses with her four-year-old, she can be found running around like a headless chicken, trying to figure out how to do it all and realising it's not quite possible.

 

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