Are You Overscheduled?

Those of you who have been with me for a while already know that I repeat this particular statement on occasion: schedules are important. I truly believe that a scheduled child is a happier child. Routine in a family can save your sanity. My son recently celebrated his fifth birthday and my daughter just turned seven this month and I’m finding the schedule more important now than ever before.

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Are You Overscheduled?

When I look at our family calendar I see school, play dates, Christmas pageants, birthday parties, doctor and dentist appointments, and family gatherings. During different seasons you can add sports to that list, or you might already have sporting events or dance lessons. Your kids’ days can get pretty packed full of activities… sometimes to the point of exhaustion for everyone!

How Much Scheduling Is Too Much?

If you find yourself looking at the calendar more than you are looking at your kids, you might be overscheduling everyone. The more family members you have, the more daunting this can be. Families need down time and together time. Just because you are all at the same place, that doesn’t mean you are having together time. It may be time to revamp your schedule and figure out where to cut back or how you can collaborate with others to save time and maybe find some downtime where there wasn’t any before. You may even want to schedule that downtime or family together time. 

How Can You Decide Which Events to Eliminate?

Knowing where to cut back isn’t always easy. You need to gather input from everyone involved. If your daughter is taking dance and soccer and both are equally important to her, it might be hard to convince her that she should only focus on one. In fact, it may be near impossible and quite painful, but if she has two soccer practices, one game, and a dance recital all in one week, when is she getting her homework done? Granted, I don’t know a lot of kids who play two different sports at the same time, but what if your daughter is taking dance and your son is taking soccer? That’s still a great deal of hustling kids around here, there, and everywhere. Confusion can and will cause more stress when you have all of these stressors happening at once. Having a solid set schedule is going to be your life saver at this point.

How to Create a Schedule That Works

Now, you may think that cutting back isn’t the answer and you may be correct. I definitely believe in the importance of extra-curricular activities. Sports and academic activities alike will help your children to learn, grow, and become socially adept. So, have a main calendar that you update weekly for at least a month ahead. You may be surprised to find that the person who needs to cut back on their appointments is actually Mom or Dad. Do you really need to volunteer for the bake sale, the decorating committee, and the car wash? Knowing what you are doing from day to day will help you fit everyone in and get them where they need to be.

Where Should You Put the Schedule?

Once you have a good set schedule, you need to get everyone on board with sticking to it. That means Mom, Dad, carpool friends, fellow parents, grandparents… basically anyone who is going to be involved in the scheduling, and especially in the transporting, feeding, and watching of the children. If you are like me, you’ll want to use an online calendar that you can share such as Google Calendar or 30 Boxes. Both of these services allow you send invitations to other users with email or mobile phone text reminders. For those people who don’t use the services or who aren’t online savvy, you can easily print out the calendar on a weekly or monthly basis and give them a hard copy. Just be sure to have them jot down any upcoming changes as soon as you are aware of them.

Finally, keep in mind that having a schedule and sticking to it will not only save your sanity, but it will also help you budget your time, your money, and your rest. Use it wisely and you’ll soon see where your priorities really are and where they need to be. For now, I recommend scheduling a time to start updating your schedule!

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