I am the definition of a guilty Mom! I feel absolutely horrible that Sammy has not had any professional pictures of him yet and he is 18 months old. I tried but every time I had an appointment at My Photographer we had to cancel cause Sammy was sick. I had to call the store and ask if the gift card we got a year ago could be extended so it would not expire! That aside there are many more things that create guilt in me.
One big thing is extracurricular (WHEW big word Lisabeth did I spell it right?lol) activities. Jordan has been asking for a couple years now to play Soccer and wants to do Karate and dance. Mariana says when she grows up she wants to be a Ballerina so she needs to take Ballet. There are a lot of reasons that they are not doing those things
1. It is very expensive! Soccer alone just to join is like 60-70 then you have uniforms and gas to get to games. Dance is 30 a month and costumes are like 70! My little brother teaches Karate but even with his discount it is still aver 30 a month.
2. Time
This is a big one these activities take up a lot of time! Practice sometimes twice a week and then games or recitals my head is spinning just writing about it.
3. School
I feel like right now in our kids life school is very important and that means a proper sleep which puts our kids in bed at 730 when I get out of work at 5 pick the kids up and eat dinner it is already 630! How is there time to add activities especially when you add homework to the equation.
So my problem is that everyone is always talking about their child's soccer team or dance class and I always feel guilty when heads turn to me and I say my kids are not in anything right now. I feel like I am less of a mother because I am not allowing my child to explore their creative sides! I just feel that other things are more important right now! Am I depriving my kids of exploring their creative side or am I just being practical????
1 comment:
First of all, stop feeling guilty! I do that all too often too and it doesn't do any good. :)
I think parents who stress out and stretch their pennies just to get their kids involved in outside activities are not benefiting anyone. Your kids will not suffer, but if you decide that you still want to let them do something, look for other cheaper ideas. There is Brownies (Girl scouts) which typically meet after school and is fairly inexpensive. You could even ask family members to give a "gift" of an activity such as sponsor one of your girls to take a class through your community. If those are not options just remember that you have plenty of years left to fill up with extra stuff and only a short time to enjoy them while they are young. I'd rather know that I can spend an hour with them before bed then have them at a class that eliminates that time all together.
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