The Busy Life of a Single Mom

Do my children do too much? Do I do too much? How much is “too much?” It seems that I run in circles and we’re never home.  I changed jobs over the summer becaues I thought that being closer to home would mean more time together and less on the road, but it seems that instead of helping, my daughter has just picked up another activity.  I also doubled my children (a teenager came to live with us) and so I think we are spending even less time together.  When do you decided enough is enough?

I’m a sponsor of several activities at school that take at least 2 or 3 days a week after school for practice, and we compete about 10 Saturdays during the school year. My youngest daughter (age 7) takes dance and twirling lessons year around and she plays softball. This year she took up Little Dribblers (basketball).  My oldest (age 16) is a member of most everything she can be at school - Student Council, Christians In Action, Debate, Softball, Tennis, FCCLA (home ec), and drama (I’m probably forgetting something). Both girls are also active in church.

I hate to discourage them from being active members of our community and participating in a variety of activities. I want them to be well-rounded and do not want them to spend all of their time “vegging out.” But there has to be a limit….my dilemma is what is the limit? And if forced to choose, how do we decide which activities to keep and which to abandon?

I’m thinking that it’s about time to give this serious thought. Let me explain by illustrating our day yesterday:
–First I had to stay after school for about 30 minutes for a meeting and to take care of some business.
–The 17 year old had softball practice at 5:30. This gave us just enough time that we didn’t want to stay at school, but by the time we got home and settled (not enough time for supper), it was time to head back.
–The 7 year old had basketball at 7:00. So we went to town and picked up groceries, filled up the car with gas, and headed back to school for her practice which didn’t end until 8.
–Thus, we didn’t get home until close to 8:30 and at this time, I have to find something for supper, look over school work, review assignments, and then we all head to bed exhausted.

If this was just one day every now and then, it would be ok, but it seems that each week is getting worse….So, now I must decide - is it time to limit our activities? Yikes. Can you tell from my current posts that life is truly BUSY?!