Permission To Stop Over-Scheduling Your Kids
Big Time Adulting
Caitlin Murray
4.9 • 811 Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2024
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Caitlin Murray wants to know why we are frothing at the mouth to enroll our kids in every single extracurricular activity? When did over-scheduling our kids become the norm? Parents of the 80s and 90s were also busy shuttling kids from thing to thing but the activities they were engaged in were close to home, not very serious, and didn't interfere with downtime and play. With a cameo from economist Emily Oster, Caitlin explores the benefits of extracurriculars but also how overcommitment can lead to burnout and strain on the family. Caitlin shares her personal experience of getting sucked into over-scheduling and how she approaches it now with more sanity and balance.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I've been thinking a lot recently about what it is that makes parenting feel so much more |
| 0:05.7 | complicated these days than it did in like the 80s and 90s when I was growing up. |
| 0:10.2 | And I feel like a big part of that is because we literally didn't fucking go anywhere or |
| 0:16.2 | do anything. |
| 0:17.2 | Like no one was being carted around to travel team this or club team that. And now |
| 0:22.4 | parents are just like obsessed with signing their kids up for activities. It's like a competitive |
| 0:27.9 | sport in itself. Sorry, you missed that email from the gymnastics place three minutes ago. |
| 0:34.5 | We're sold out now. It's going to be another six months at least until we have an opening again. It's just like people are frothing at the mouth to get their kids |
| 0:42.2 | signed up for more shit and just create more chaos in our lives. And I feel like it would just be |
| 0:47.3 | so nice if we could go back to a time where people would just go out and play in the neighborhood |
| 0:52.1 | with whoever was around. Like, yeah, sure, sports are |
| 0:55.8 | thrilling, but have you ever been double-bounce on a rusty trampoline that wasn't enclosed before? |
| 1:01.5 | Because that will get your adrenaline pumping. Have you ever freed half the neighborhood from jail |
| 1:07.8 | in a game of manhunt? those are the legendary moments of childhood. |
| 1:12.5 | Now, like, God forbid, kids don't have anything to do for five minutes, |
| 1:16.3 | and they're asking you to take them to fucking Starbucks. |
| 1:18.9 | It's like, get outside, get into some trouble, for God's sake. |
| 1:22.5 | I'd rather pick you up from the police station later than give you a ride to Starbucks right now. |
| 1:29.6 | Hi, everybody. Welcome back. Let's talk about fucking extracurriculars here today. |
| 1:37.6 | I think about this stuff a lot and I can't wrap my mind around why people want to go insane with extracurriculars these |
| 1:49.8 | days. Why is it so out of control? Myself included, like during the fall and spring when my kids |
| 1:56.5 | are their busiest, I feel drained and annoyed by the amount of like carting around I'm doing to get |
... |
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