| Parenting Your Way |
Take Out Some Full Hours and Add Some Empty Ones!
by Tami Gallagher of Organized to the Core
by Tami Gallagher of Organized to the Core
Studies by the University of Michigan document that since 1970 children have lost 12 hours of free time per week, including a 25% drop
in play and a 50% drop in unstructured outdoor activities. Meanwhile time in structured sports has doubled!
Child development experts report that children suffer from the lack of unstructured fun, that unstructured play is essential to children’s
growth, crucial in cultivating creativity and imagination, as well as expanding intellectual, emotional, and social skills.
Saying yes to over-scheduling says no to your family. Over-scheduled families are over-burdened, stressed, more prone to arguing, and
less likely to spend unstructured time. The time clutter in our schedules can lead to a chaotic life while things just seem to "happen" to
us. You may end up doing things that you don’t even enjoy doing, don’t need to do, or don’t do you any good.
So what are some of the reasons why we over-schedule?
Time Clutter comes in various forms, some include:
Let’s look at the last one. Forget the Jones’ next door and how many organized activities their children are in. Focus on your family.
How can you balance their need for structured and unstructured play?
Some ideas to encourage unstructured time:
Take the time to recognize your family’s core values. Then reprioritize and reorganize your family schedule to reflect and honor those
values. You’ll find extraordinary results. You’ll have more room for creativity, less mental clutter, less guilt, less stress, a feeling of
control, increased self-esteem, more time for doing the things your family wants. You will be closer, better rested, and less whiny.
Every moment will have a greater impact and everyone will just plain be happier!
Tami Gallagher is founder of Organized to the Core, is a professional organizer and mother of four children. She and her husband reside
in the Twin Cities. Her web address is www.OrganizedtotheCore.com
in play and a 50% drop in unstructured outdoor activities. Meanwhile time in structured sports has doubled!
Child development experts report that children suffer from the lack of unstructured fun, that unstructured play is essential to children’s
growth, crucial in cultivating creativity and imagination, as well as expanding intellectual, emotional, and social skills.
Saying yes to over-scheduling says no to your family. Over-scheduled families are over-burdened, stressed, more prone to arguing, and
less likely to spend unstructured time. The time clutter in our schedules can lead to a chaotic life while things just seem to "happen" to
us. You may end up doing things that you don’t even enjoy doing, don’t need to do, or don’t do you any good.
So what are some of the reasons why we over-schedule?
Time Clutter comes in various forms, some include:
- Overdoing – just plain doing more than necessary
- ‘Experience’ greed – not being selective and wanting to try everything
- A need to be needed – being over-available, not saying no
- Overachieving in order to impress
- Busy-holism – a way to get an adrenaline high
- Parenting as a competitive sport – keeping up with the Jones’, not wanting to miss out, which among other things, tells kids they
are valued for what they do, not who they are
Let’s look at the last one. Forget the Jones’ next door and how many organized activities their children are in. Focus on your family.
How can you balance their need for structured and unstructured play?
Some ideas to encourage unstructured time:
- Choose one organized activity at a time. Children spread too thin will be mediocre at everything and masters of nothing.
- Be selective. Create a set of parameters the new activity must meet.
- Schedule it into your day – until it’s a habit.
- Limit Screen Time. Restrict the amount of hours your children can spend on electronic media.
- Stop giving children content. Giving them content actually stifles their creativity and short-circuits their developing imaginations.
- Send them outside. Everyday. Besides obvious safety measures, leave them be to direct their own play.
- Let your children be bored. Resist the urge to find something to do for them. They’ll figure it out…eventually.
Take the time to recognize your family’s core values. Then reprioritize and reorganize your family schedule to reflect and honor those
values. You’ll find extraordinary results. You’ll have more room for creativity, less mental clutter, less guilt, less stress, a feeling of
control, increased self-esteem, more time for doing the things your family wants. You will be closer, better rested, and less whiny.
Every moment will have a greater impact and everyone will just plain be happier!
Tami Gallagher is founder of Organized to the Core, is a professional organizer and mother of four children. She and her husband reside
in the Twin Cities. Her web address is www.OrganizedtotheCore.com
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