When did the Over-Scheduled Childhood start?

[21stamps]

This is kind of a replacement thread to a previous sports thread I had posted.

I don't know when it started, but now almost every kid's sport is year round commitment. The one's who aren't one sport athletes must play select teams to have the appropriate skill level around the them... but how do they do that with year round commitments? How do you juggle 3 sports in the Springtime? Why is all of this starting in 1st and 2nd grade?!?!?!

What is happening to our children?!
What has happened to us parents?!?! Why is this necessary to be so overscheduled at such a young age?

The whole thing is frustrating to me. NOT all kids are going to be professional sports players, not all will stay have the same "favorite sport" at 10 as they did at 6 or 7... this kind of commitment being "the norm" starting at such a young age, is doing more harm than good imo. It's encouraging a One Sport child, or it's making the rest of the athletic kids have way too much on their plate.

I think it's horrendous. Especially when the kids have other extra curricular activities that aren't sorts related!! But what do you do? The system is already in place.

 

[21stamps]

I just read this (3 year old) article..

ESPN says a study found that the "kids are alright". I think the jury is still out..

http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/10496416/are-youth-sports-ruining-kids-childhoods-espn-magazine

"Therein lies the twist: From psychologists to orthopedists, educators to parents, the experts claim that the professionalization of youth sports -- the year-round schedule, the private training, the early specialization -- is ruining our nation's youth. Meanwhile, the kids themselves say in no uncertain terms that the professionalization of youth sports is precisely why they love doing what they do. The million-dollar question is: Who are the real experts?"
---
I agree with this!!!!

"Burnout is just one of the reasons that Bigelow, who's spent the last two decades as a youth sports advocate, is a devout proponent of the Long-Term Athletic Development model (LTAD). Developed by Canadian sport science expert Istvan Balyi, LTAD preaches that when it comes to all team sports and even certain individual ones (tennis, track, cycling), generalizing at the younger ages -- playing a variety of different sports in low-pressure environments -- is the healthiest and best way for kids to grow. According to Balyi, early specialization should be strictly reserved for sports like figure skating, gymnastics and diving, anomalous disciplines in which lower center of gravity, shorter levers (legs and trunk), and lower muscle mass -- not to mention a lack of fear -- are advantageous. "In the early specialization sports," says Balyi, "if you don't start young, you don't stand a chance." Not so for the late-specialization sports. Despite not playing basketball until the ninth grade, Bigelow still managed to make it to the NBA. Not surprisingly, he maintains that prepubescent athletic ability is meaningless when it comes to postpubescent athletic success. "Your little soccer star might have played 3,000 soccer games by the time he's 10 years old, but he's still only 4-foot-9 and 85 pounds." In other words, he contends, puberty is the great equalizer, and there's no telling what will happen to kids (or more importantly, to their peers) once the hormones kick in."
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Kids in elementary school should NOT be One Trick Ponies!!!!

"That highest level is the pot of gold that has so many of today's parents allowing, and in some cases pushing, their youngsters to specialize at such an early age. Nearly 40 percent of our survey respondents were already one-trick ponies. For that, we can thank Tiger, Malcolm and the Joneses."

 

[Courtney6682]

When Brook was younger like 4-8th grades she played year round sports...softball, basketball, soccer, cheered and was in girl scouts. I guess I should have put my foot down and made her choose one or 2 and not 5 activities lol, but I wanted her to be ''well-rounded'' and have lots of different interests. She sure ran me ragged those few years, but now shes in 12th grade and she only rides which she's been doing for 2-3 yrs now.

 

[21stamps]

When Brook was younger like 4-8th grades she played year round sports...softball, basketball, soccer, cheered and was in girl scouts. I guess I should have put my foot down and made her choose one or 2 and not 5 activities lol, but I wanted her to be ''well-rounded'' and have lots of different interests. She sure ran me ragged those few years, but now shes in 12th grade and she only rides which she's been doing for 2-3 yrs now.

You are smart!! Kids should be well-rounded. They should experience and explore! It's ridiculous to limit them at such a young age. Once they get to high school they won't be able to keep it all up, then they can choose.

 

[Courtney6682]

You are smart!! Kids should be well-rounded. They should experience and explore! It's ridiculous to limit them at such a young age. Once they get to high school they won't be able to keep it all up, then they can choose.

Exactly! I wouldn't even WANT her doing multiple sports in high school. School is always first in our house, as I'm sure it is for most families. She's working 20-30 hrs a week which I think is too much, but she's on track for honor roll this first marking period...so I guess it's ok lol

 

[Courtney6682]

You are smart!! Kids should be well-rounded. They should experience and explore! It's ridiculous to limit them at such a young age. Once they get to high school they won't be able to keep it all up, then they can choose.

Oh, I forgot tumbling lol

 

[21stamps]

Exactly! I wouldn't even WANT her doing multiple sports in high school. School is always first in our house, as I'm sure it is for most families. She's working 20-30 hrs a week which I think is too much, but she's on track for honor roll this first marking period...so I guess it's ok lol

Right. They only have a limited amount of years, let them enjoy their childhood.

Oh, I forgot tumbling lol

Ha! It's so crazy how much we run around for our kids. My kid might complain about being an only child, but I don't think I could handle more kids and their activities.lol
I have no clue how other parents do it.

 

[Master Yoda]

It is nothing new. Caring about it might be, but that is about it.

I did soccer year round when I was in elementary school back in the late 70's.

 

[21stamps]

It is nothing new. Caring about it might be, but that is about it.

I did soccer year round when I was in elementary school back in the late 70's.

When I was young our select programs did not require us to be year round multiple days per week commitments, it was spring and fall, and winter was completely recreational not required. I wish the Soccer clubs would have left it that way. These kids don't need to be nationally ranked at such young ages. Like the article above said, who knows what will happen after puberty.

Also when I was young.. it wasn't a couple of thousand dollars to play soccer. Even factoring in inflation.lol.

Sports are so ridiculous now. I get that some parents want their kid to be a super star, and some always have wanted it.. but the "super star teams" being the norm in all sports now is just so strange to me. Club baseball, club soccer, Say soccer, school basketball, school golf.. all running the same seasons. When I was a child that was not allowed at school, or at least highly discouraged.
My kid wants to play lacrosse.. it's not even possible time wise. I had to tell him "no". Maybe when older and narrows sports down. Or maybe he won't make any or all of the club teams.

 

[MinnieM123]

I guess every family's situation is unique. When I was a kid, my siblings and I could pick one activity a year. For a few years, I took swimming lessons, and other years I took piano lessons. My sister took ballet a few years, and art lessons for the others. My brothers played softball in the summer, and ran track during high school.

That was it--the rest of the time we'd just hang out with our pals, once we came home each afternoon from school. Homework was done every night, except on weekends. There was very little driving that my parents had to do for our activities, as most of them were within walking or biking distance in our town. I don't remember any sort of hectic schedule at all.

 

[Nemo14]

I guess every family's situation is unique. When I was a kid, my siblings and I could pick one activity a year. For a few years, I took swimming lessons, and other years I took piano lessons. My sister took ballet a few years, and art lessons for the others. My brothers played softball in the summer, and ran track during high school.

That was it--the rest of the time we'd just hang out with our pals, once we came home each afternoon from school. Homework was done every night, except on weekends. There was very little driving that my parents had to do for our activities, as most of them were within walking or biking distance in our town. I don't remember any sort of hectic schedule at all.

Same with us, but then I’m older than dirt . We raised our kids the same way and so far they’re pretty well- adjusted adults.0

 

[21stamps]

I guess every family's situation is unique. When I was a kid, my siblings and I could pick one activity a year. For a few years, I took swimming lessons, and other years I took piano lessons. My sister took ballet a few years, and art lessons for the others. My brothers played softball in the summer, and ran track during high school.

That was it--the rest of the time we'd just hang out with our pals, once we came home each afternoon from school. Homework was done every night, except on weekends. There was very little driving that my parents had to do for our activities, as most of them were within walking or biking distance in our town. I don't remember any sort of hectic schedule at all.

Omg. I forgot about swim lessons. Your post just gave me another gray hair.

In my family my dad played on a competitive softball team into his 40s. We went out of town for his tournaments and were at his games on weekends during the season.
I'm the oldest and played every sport at school, but also had competitive diving outside of my grade school, from age 8. In high school I was forced to choose. Obviously diving was biggest passion, so I had to give up volleyball as they are conflicting seasons. So at that time I had my high school dive team and my city dive team. Luckily my high school coach was amazing, and she didn't mind if I missed practice for my city team. I played rec indoor soccer and volleyball at a local sports club.

My brother stuck to school sports alone.. played all of them but didn't do anything year round.

My sister was a high level gymnast from a very young age. She played all sports til 2nd grade,, then only played select soccer in spring and fall, gymnastics year round. Then soccer on her high school team and her same year round gymnastics. Retired from gymnastics her senior year. and then played soccer in college. She did track maybe 2 or 3 years, but it was just too much. We were constantly out of town for her gymnastic meet.

All that said, our school sports did have so much talent.. most kids didn't abandon the school team for a select team. There was also a lot less select teams back then, I think the talent is getting watered down by all of the select teams that exist now, but that's a whole other rant.

We were crazy busy growing up, but still had time for friends, hanging out at a swim club.. most of the time riding our bikes there.

My mother, and a lot of other mothers during those years, were not working outside of the home..they had time to run us all around and the constant out of town trips.

I do have a career, a lot of women have a career these days. so why and how we're making our schedules even worse than they were in the 80s and 90s is nonsensical to me.
The first line of BOTH the American Baseball and Soccer Select Leagues here read "families must understand that this is a year round commitment".
I understand the year round for the gymnastics, diving, figure skating.. but baseball and soccer?!?!!!!! This is the parents doing, I don't know why it changed, and I don't think it's for the better.
What is the shelflife of the next gen athletes? How many will have arthritis or multiple surgeries by the time they are 40, or earlier?

 

[MinnieM123]

Omg. I forgot about swim lessons. Your post just gave me another gray hair.

In my family my dad played on a competitive softball team into his 40s. We went out of town for his tournaments and were at his games on weekends during the season.
I'm the oldest and played every sport at school, but also had competitive diving outside of my grade school, from age 8. In high school I was forced to choose. Obviously diving was biggest passion, so I had to give up volleyball as they are conflicting seasons. So at that time I had my high school dive team and my city dive team. Luckily my high school coach was amazing, and she didn't mind if I missed practice for my city team. I played rec indoor soccer and volleyball at a local sports club.

My brother stuck to school sports alone.. played all of them but didn't do anything year round.

My sister was a high level gymnast from a very young age. She played all sports til 2nd grade,, then only played select soccer in spring and fall, gymnastics year round. Then soccer on her high school team and her same year round gymnastics. Retired from gymnastics her senior year. and then played soccer in college. She did track maybe 2 or 3 years, but it was just too much. We were constantly out of town for her gymnastic meet.

All that said, our school sports did have so much talent.. most kids didn't abandon the school team for a select team. There was also a lot less select teams back then, I think the talent is getting watered down by all of the select teams that exist now, but that's a whole other rant.

We were crazy busy growing up, but still had time for friends, hanging out at a swim club.. most of the time riding our bikes there.

My mother, and a lot of other mothers during those years, were not working outside of the home..they had time to run us all around and the constant out of town trips.

I do have a career, a lot of women have a career these days. so why and how we're making our schedules even worse than they were in the 80s and 90s is nonsensical to me.
The first line of BOTH the American Baseball and Soccer Select Leagues here read "families must understand that this is a year round commitment".
I understand the year round for the gymnastics, diving, figure skating.. but baseball and soccer?!?!!!!! This is the parents doing, I don't know why it changed, and I don't think it's for the better.
What is the shelflife of the next gen athletes? How many will have arthritis or multiple surgeries by the time they are 40, or earlier?

That's a very full schedule for all. Some families are spread very thin nowadays. And as you also mentioned, you wonder about the shelf-life of the next generation athletes--it's definitely something to think about.

Speaking of thinking, a thought just came to mind. It's the expression, "less is more" and I'm glad I grew up when I did, and had (more) time to smell the roses. Nevertheless, you're obviously doing the best you can for yourself and your son, and I wish you both all the best.

 

[21stamps]

That's a very full schedule for all. Some families are spread very thin nowadays. And as you also mentioned, you wonder about the shelf-life of the next generation athletes--it's definitely something to think about.

Speaking of thinking, a thought just came to mind. It's the expression, "less is more" and I'm glad I grew up when I did, and had (more) time to smell the roses. Nevertheless, you're obviously doing the best you can for yourself and your son, and I wish you both all the best.

I agree with the smell the roses. Grateful for my generation as well. I'm so glad that I had a childhood where we road a bike to a friend's house and knocked on the door. Walked to a candy store, played hockey games in the street. We weren't a generation of scheduled Play Dates, Pinterest, and club teams as the norm rather than the exception.

There's many positives to today, but there's many simple things that I wish still existed.

I officially sound like an old person now.lol

 

[wdwfan4ver]

That is something I didn't have to worry about as a kid from a sports standpoint because sports for me was recess and gym. I'm willing to say I was a lost cause athletically, but I don't want to go into details.

I think burn out started years ago in sports. I heard and read about Todd Marinovich basically was raised to be an american football player basically when was in a crib by his own dad by focusing on his sons physical conditioning as a baby. Todd's dad only allowed him to have fresh vegetables, fruits, and raw milk as a baby. I don't want to go into what he had as a kid after he was a baby because it would shake your head at the dad even more.

Todd even was labeled as "America's first test tube Baby" by the media and that basically meant he was raised to be trained as an athlete by his parents from the time he was born.

It sounded like Todd started to going against his dad's teachings to be an athlete back in his high school days by drinking and doing drugs. Todd was drafted in the first round in the National Football League draft, but his sports career was derailed by drugs. Todd has a history of legal problems dating back to college.

 

[21stamps]

Nm

 

[MickeyMomV]

I think it all depends on the child. We had a conversation my son 2 years ago and asked him if he would rather be really great at one sport or really good at several and he chose several....My son has done AYSO soccer for the last 7 years. They play 8 weeks in the fall and 8 weeks in the spring as 1 season. For the last 8 years he has also done the local little league every spring for 8-10 weeks(overlapped with spring soccer). He did all of the basketball through the school on Saturdays in the winter to stay mobile. We never did any of the travel teams or expensive training camps. We felt it be better for him to do the different sports to work different muscle groups and parts of his body. The result is that he is better conditioned that most of the kids in his class. He has been on the baseball all star team 4 out of the last 4 years, he is a starter on the schools soccer team and logs more play time than anybody else on the team, and he made the basketball team with no issues. All of this while taking advance math and Spanish and keeping a 3.85 GPA.

The reason I go through all of this is not to gloat (OK maybe a little bit of it is) but to point out that not every kid is the same. My son has a best friend who plays travel baseball and Little League, he plays on the basketball team, he is a good kid but he struggles in school. It that his fault? Absolutely not, its the parents fault. As parents we need to be looking out for our kids and doing what it best for them and sometimes that is saying "no". But where the problem falls is everybody thinks their kid will be the next Derek Jeter or Mathew Stafford (what do you want we are from Michigan) so they spend all of this time and money pushing their kids into a sport and in the end they never play ball past high school. Just make sure the kids have a solid education and if they do good, let them play what they enjoy. Make sure they go to college and get a degree. Spend the time and money there and they have a better chance of making "the big bucks".

If you have time here is a great article from Time on the $15 billion/year youth sports industry.
http://time.com/4913687/how-kids-sports-became-15-billion-industry/

 

[21stamps]

I think it all depends on the child. We had a conversation my son 2 years ago and asked him if he would rather be really great at one sport or really good at several and he chose several....My son has done AYSO soccer for the last 7 years. They play 8 weeks in the fall and 8 weeks in the spring as 1 season. For the last 8 years he has also done the local little league every spring for 8-10 weeks(overlapped with spring soccer). He did all of the basketball through the school on Saturdays in the winter to stay mobile. We never did any of the travel teams or expensive training camps. We felt it be better for him to do the different sports to work different muscle groups and parts of his body. The result is that he is better conditioned that most of the kids in his class. He has been on the baseball all star team 4 out of the last 4 years, he is a starter on the schools soccer team and logs more play time than anybody else on the team, and he made the basketball team with no issues. All of this while taking advance math and Spanish and keeping a 3.85 GPA.

The reason I go through all of this is not to gloat (OK maybe a little bit of it is) but to point out that not every kid is the same. My son has a best friend who plays travel baseball and Little League, he plays on the basketball team, he is a good kid but he struggles in school. It that his fault? Absolutely not, its the parents fault. As parents we need to be looking out for our kids and doing what it best for them and sometimes that is saying "no". But where the problem falls is everybody thinks their kid will be the next Derek Jeter or Mathew Stafford (what do you want we are from Michigan) so they spend all of this time and money pushing their kids into a sport and in the end they never play ball past high school. Just make sure the kids have a solid education and if they do good, let them play what they enjoy. Make sure they go to college and get a degree. Spend the time and money there and they have a better chance of making "the big bucks".

If you have time here is a great article from Time on the $15 billion/year youth sports industry.
http://time.com/4913687/how-kids-sports-became-15-billion-industry/

I just came here to post something and noticed your comment.. wish I would have read it sooner! I agree with you.. and great job by your son! (And his parents!)

My son has pretty much stopped practicing ball skills at home, for about a month now. Yesterday in our indoor game, he didn’t play very well at all during the first half..looked like he was exhausted. Second half he played great. The inconsistency lately is concerning.

Outside of his 2 days per week training and game he appears to have lost the interest he had in at-home practice during the Fall. Now he’s all about basketball (which he’s playing currently) and baseball..practices pitching (with a wiffle ball) in preparation for an upcoming baseball camp...and working on his putting for golf... but he doesn’t touch a soccer ball at home now.

I sat him down last night and had a serious talk. I told him that he isn’t acting like he wants to play premier soccer, and that’s OK. BUT, if he doesn’t want to play, we need to withdraw now and let another kid have his spot.
Starting next month we will have an additional day of soccer at 8am on Sunday mornings for the next 12 weeks.,which means we will have to wake up around 6am, and he will have an earlier bedtime on Saturday evening.

I asked him if he is positive that he wants this, and if he will start practicing touches daily again..if he will enjoy it, not do it just because I’m telling him to. Reiterated again that “it’s ok” if he doesn’t want to play at that level, I just want him to do what he enjoys.

He says that he wants to.. and he’s going to start drills again today. We’ll see. I’m worried. I don’t want him to get burnt out before he turns 8 years old. He had so much passion a few months ago, I don’t see that passion now.