Happy Monday y'all!
To celebrate Mommy Monday, we're giving away two copies of KEEP YOUR SKIRT ON by Starshine Roshell. It's a smart, sassy collection of her kicky columns with legs for GenX Moms everywhere that will have you LOLing. Just leave a comment to enter!
Considering the fact that I had to squeeze time in to write this post in between softball games, swimming lessons and soccer signups, I'd thought that today we'd discuss why the hell we overschedule our children(and ourselves) to death.
Now, before we go any further, let me just say that I'm a huge part of the problem. I find myself in a constant frenzy, not only trying to figure out when and where to sign up for all this shit, but how to find time to get them there. (Btw, Coach Steve, 1:30pm weekday practices are NOT convenient. Doesn't anyone have a J-O-B around here?)
I'm almost embarrassed to admit to the meltdown I had two weeks ago when my daughter's softball league was up in the air due to a lack of sign-ups. I literally thought to myself, Great! She'll NEVER make it in softball now. I envisioned her blaming me for years to come whenever the subject came up. That I was sentencing her to a lifetime of inadequacy on the softball field. Oh, did I mention that she's barely FIVE YEARS OLD?
And it doesn't help that sometimes our well-meaning Mom friends make us feel as if we just stepped up on stage to pick up the Lamest Parent of the Year award.
Geez. That's too bad. Because you really should have her out on the field by five.
That's okay. She can still play for fun!
And you missed AYSO signups too? (insert silent judgement here)
It seems that often we are so obsessed about giving our child every advantage, or to righting every percieved wrong from our childhood, that it can be pretty damn easy to lose perspective. I'm sure I'm not the only mom who's stomach churns when she realized that her friend's children are swimming like Michael Phelps while her little rugrats are still hanging on to their floaties for dear life. Or when she saw the adorable photos of her niece's dance recital on Facebook and second guessed her decision to sign her little princess up for soccer instead, secretly wondering if she's doomed her to tomboy status her entire childhood.
And just for the record, I don't know what the answers are. I'm down here with you in the trenches, trying to figure out how to find the balance between active and overscheduled kids. I'm just saying that the next time your Mommy friend calls you up in a panic that little Johnny is never going to make it in the big leagues because she missed his tee-ball sign ups, just remind her gently that she's losing her damn mind. And then help her put things in perspective. She'll love you for it, I promise.
xoxo, Liz