Ahhh, remember the good ol’ days of playing freeze tag or hide n’ go seek out in the back yard? Or, shooting hoops in the driveway and somehow gathering a group of friends together? Maybe you just rode your bike on the sidewalk with a nearby friend after school just to get outside after being cooped up in a classroom all day.

It seems like those days are long forgotten. Most kids today have little or no opportunity to enjoy the simple past times we did when we were kids. Seems like everything now is ‘planned’, ‘organized’, and ‘arranged’. Play dates, camps, sports leagues are the norm as we strive to provide our children with as many opportunities as we can possibly find for them to experience what we did not. Rarely are they inspired to participate in a spontaneous game of football with the neighborhood kids or come up with some sort of creative activity to pass the time.

There isn’t much time for our kids to have “free time”: unstructured time, time to dream, time to discover — and yes, to even become a little bored once in a while. And entertaining themselves with a video game doesn’t count since that keeps them away from friends and families. If you’re unsure about whether your kids have too much going on, think about how many times a week your entire family sits down together at the dinner table.

Could it be, however, that in our efforts to create a better life for our kids, they are becoming “overscheduled”? Are their lives becoming more stressful under the pressure of all the activities in which they are involved? Numerous articles can be found on this subject that suggest kids may succumb to the pressures of being consistently shuttled from one activity to the next and experience stress-related psychosomatic symptoms such as headaches, stomachaches, insomnia, and anxiety attacks.

So what can parents do to help their kids enjoy more free time?   Psychiatrist Dr. Alvin Rosenfeld, author of  The Over-Scheduled Child: Avoiding the Hyper-Parenting Trap, offers the following suggestions.

• Allow for ‘down time’. “Down time” is essential to a child’s creativity, all the way through high school. Children need to have unstructured types of play to develop their imaginations. Allow plenty of time for kids to hang out with their friends, use their imaginations, read books, and develop hobbies.
• Set limits. Pick and choose activities carefully, involving children in the decision-making process. Weigh the benefits against the investment of time and energy.
• Let kids choose their own activities. Avoid forcing kids to participate in an activity simply because it’s “good for them.”
• Look for signs of stress. A drop in grades, changes in sleeping or eating, an increase in physical complaints, complaints about or avoidance of activities: these can be signs that your child has taken on too much.
• Be unproductive for a change and allow time for play, that is, unstructured play. That doesn’t mean sitting in front of a television for six hours a day or playing video games. Take a walk, camp, read together or enjoy a board game. Enjoy children for who they are, not how they perform.
• Build relationships with yourself, your spouse, friends and significant others. Enjoy life outside of your children’s activities. Make family time a priority.

Linde Hyder, i9 Sports Mom Blogger

You may also be interested in these other related blog posts:

Is Your Family Over- scheduled?

What To Do When Your Child Wants To Quit