Extracurricular madness: why parents should overload their kids' schedules
It's tempting to drop all your kids' extracurricular activities in favor of a little bit of peace. But you shouldn't.
Haven't you ever heard the saying about idle hands and teens? And if there's not a saying about idle hands and teens, then we need to write one right now. It should also have the words "orange prisoner jumpsuit'' in it.
If you listen to all the armchair parent-coaches out there, you'll hear a lot of buzz about maniacal schedules, and insinuations that your kid doesn't really want to be an Olympic diver, or head of the golf team. Or a tiny karate prodigy, or a professional-level mini cheerleader. Or whatever. That you are trying to live another youth, a better one, by enrolling Junior in all these sports that you yourself just never did win the gold medal in.
Don't believe all that. A lot of the discussion out there about activities highlights the positive. Kids learn to balance work and play. They meet people, they're challenged to excel in something special. On and on. What busy person do you know who is a total slacker? What well-rounded adult who balances a lot of activities is a loser?
If you lay the foundation in your kid's younger years, you'll be glad when your kid hits the teens. Sports practices and games take up so much time in a teen's life, they have much less time to be smoking cigarettes at carnivals, as some of you told me recently a bunch of our Broward youth are doing.
Here are some links on extra activities:
How to choose extracurriculars for your child
Gretchen Day-Bryant has a son in high school and a daughter in middle school. She’s lived to tell about the struggles of juggling little kids and work.
Joy Oglesby has a preschooler...
Cindy Kent Fort Lauderdale mother of three. Her kids span in ages from teenager to 20s.
Rafael Olmeda and his wife welcomed their first son in Feb. 2009, and he's helping raise two teenage stepdaughters.
Lois Solomon lives in Boca Raton with her husband and three daughters.
Georgia East is the parent of a five-year-old girl, who came into the world weighing 1 pound, 13 ounces.
Brittany Wallman is the mother of Creed, 15, and Lily, 7, and is married to a journalist, Bob Norman. She covers Broward County government, which is filled with almost as much drama as the Norman household. Almost.
Chris Tiedje is the Social Media Coordinator and the father of a 7-year-old girl, and two boys ages 4 and 3.
Kyara Lomer Camarena has a 2-year-old son, Copelan, and a brand new baby. 
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