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How much sports is too much? Boy, this is a hard question and if I could solve it in a 300-word blog post, I would be super proud of myself. Can’t quite do that but we can give some guidance that should help. FYI – when I am talking about sports here, I am including all types of sports including dance, martial arts, etc.
Now l know sometimes your child has moments in the season where he or she is not fired up about their sport but look to see if your child has a passion for whatever sport they are participating in. If they are not enjoying it, it’s not worth the time.
You are not going to get too far behind in any sport in the grade school years. If your child has an ability at a certain sport, he or she will be able to catch up with their peers even if they miss a couple of years of select teams. Just because everyone else is playing year-round baseball at seven years old doesn’t mean you have to. Let your child try soccer and baseball and basketball when they are young.
This one is not a hard and fast rule and can differ based on your number of kids, but especially with our number of kids (seven) we only allowed one sport each season. It’s healthy for our kids to make choices about what they want to do and it super helps us to slow down as a family.
Again, we are not completely solving the issue – just a few quick thoughts -- and every family is different. This is just some food for thought as you consider how much is too much. Remember you set yourself up for success or failure as you pick what you are going to do each season. Once you have chosen, then you need to support your team and live with the consequences until the season is over. So be wise on the front end of the seasons to save yourself grief on the back end.
