Active Isn’t Overscheduled

September brings the start of the school year — and the resumption of all the kids’ activities. As I write everything out, I will admit that the list seems robust. My 7-year-old in particular enjoys many things, and as a result he is now doing parkour and a “Ninja Warrior” type class, plus rock climbing, swimming, flag football, and karate.

I guess I could fret about overscheduling him. But he has a lot of energy. If he gets home from school around 3:45 p.m. and we require him to be in his room at 9 p.m. (he doesn’t have to wake up until almost 8 a.m.!), there are a lot of hours to fill — to say nothing of weekend time. Six different activities just means he spends slightly fewer hours watching random YouTube videos.

I remind myself of this in my adult life too. Adults wind up with various engagements in our lives,?and it can be easy to complain of having too much going on.

But I track my time, and so I can see how much non-scheduled space is still there. If I sleep 8 hours a night on weekend nights, that gives me 32 waking weekend hours (combining Saturdays and Sundays). On a weekend with five kids’ activities taking 2 hours apiece (incorporating driving time) plus a half-day adventure (5 hours), plus church (2 hours) that would leave 15 non-scheduled hours. And since my husband and I often split the kids’ activities (and some occur concurrently) that leaves even more unstructured time. Much of it is not true leisure with a 2-year-old, but it isn’t scheduled.

There is almost always unscheduled time in life. The question is just how much.

That’s why I tend not to worry too much about overscheduling. On the margin, I’m happy my kids like doing things. Life can feel a little full without it being close to over the top. As long as people are enjoying themselves, it’s all good.

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