September isn’t just when kids head back to school?it’s also when parents scramble to get their kids into extracurricular activities. For many families, that’s not as easy as it sounds. Some can’t afford it. Others have no way to get their kids to lessons when working long hours. Some families have just not been able to create the bandwidth needed to sit down and figure out an extracurricular schedule that their children would enjoy and that would fit into their hectic lives. And then there are those who, despite their best efforts, couldn’t snag a coveted spot at an affordable, city-run program.
If you fit into one of the categories above, you find yourself feeling guilty that while other kids will be doing ballet, violin, soccer and swimming, yours…won’t. You may feel like you’ve let your kids down As a child psychologist, here’s my best advice to you: Be gentle with yourself!
Although extracurricular experiences are important for children to develop a full understanding of themselves and their strengths and passions, it is not the end of the world if kids miss a term or two of such activities. There’s something that’s actually way more important for children: that their family has a kind of weekly rhythm that’s manageable for their parents to maintain. Ideally, you’re able to settle into a routine that does not take too much parental energy to keep going. I’m talking here about set dinner...