Not much to elaborate on here. Read more if you want. In my situation kids are 6 & 8. They’ve both been doing rec soccer since age of 5 and started doing fall indoor soccer practice 1x/week at 6.
This year dad signed 8 Y/O up for competitive club soccer. 3-4 night commitment for 5-6 months. 2 out of town tournaments and some all weekend local tournaments. Thank god it’s over.
Technically we CAN accommodate such activities. We have the work availability and can squeeze the money out. But it’s not comfortable.
I mean I don’t want to be a jerk or stop them from pursing their passions. But I think it’s a wild commitment for the age of 8. We get home from school at 3 give or take 15 minutes and they go to bed at 8. Our routine before this was they get screen/free time to play with friends until 5/6. I cook dinner and tidy up while they do that. Then after dinner as a family (both home by then) homework, bath, and family time. We mostly reserved weekends for outings, some down time for everybody, and birthday parties. A few hours of shopping/heavy cleaning too. We live 2 minutes from a YMCA, so we’d go swimming as a family 2-5x per week to burn energy during cold months.
I so desperately miss that flexibility. I feel like with frequent practices/games EVERYTHING is thrown out of balance. Cleaning, mealtimes, bedtimes, down time for all of us, family time, outings. Soccer practice and driving to these games means our evening routines are all over the place. I’m used to cooking every night, doing a load of laundry most days, giving the kids free time daily, and getting family/down time every night.
Maybe it’s that we’re not well off? We don’t have a dishwasher, we have a tiny rental that takes a lot of work to keep organized and clean. We’re 20 minutes from most of these fields. Closer homes are way over budget. Convenience luxuries like buying takeout frequently, hiring a cleaner, etc are out of reach.
I just question if I’m a lazy homebody or if this is common to opt out of. In my household growing up kids did rec until at least middle school. But I know other families who has minimum 1 activity per season and were competitive always.
I know they’ll be disappointed if we say no to competition. But on the surface they were so much happier and calmer with rec only.
This year dad signed 8 Y/O up for competitive club soccer. 3-4 night commitment for 5-6 months. 2 out of town tournaments and some all weekend local tournaments. Thank god it’s over.
Technically we CAN accommodate such activities. We have the work availability and can squeeze the money out. But it’s not comfortable.
I mean I don’t want to be a jerk or stop them from pursing their passions. But I think it’s a wild commitment for the age of 8. We get home from school at 3 give or take 15 minutes and they go to bed at 8. Our routine before this was they get screen/free time to play with friends until 5/6. I cook dinner and tidy up while they do that. Then after dinner as a family (both home by then) homework, bath, and family time. We mostly reserved weekends for outings, some down time for everybody, and birthday parties. A few hours of shopping/heavy cleaning too. We live 2 minutes from a YMCA, so we’d go swimming as a family 2-5x per week to burn energy during cold months.
I so desperately miss that flexibility. I feel like with frequent practices/games EVERYTHING is thrown out of balance. Cleaning, mealtimes, bedtimes, down time for all of us, family time, outings. Soccer practice and driving to these games means our evening routines are all over the place. I’m used to cooking every night, doing a load of laundry most days, giving the kids free time daily, and getting family/down time every night.
Maybe it’s that we’re not well off? We don’t have a dishwasher, we have a tiny rental that takes a lot of work to keep organized and clean. We’re 20 minutes from most of these fields. Closer homes are way over budget. Convenience luxuries like buying takeout frequently, hiring a cleaner, etc are out of reach.
I just question if I’m a lazy homebody or if this is common to opt out of. In my household growing up kids did rec until at least middle school. But I know other families who has minimum 1 activity per season and were competitive always.
I know they’ll be disappointed if we say no to competition. But on the surface they were so much happier and calmer with rec only.
I’m not going to lie, a guilty part of me wishes they were nerdier. I’m SO happy and supportive of them talking to me about soccer for hours on end and trying my best to help them practice.