Free-time is a good thing. Parents spend a lot of time encouraging their children to participate in recreational activities during the school year. There is nothing wrong with having your child participate in different activities and helping them to figure out what they are passionate about; however, over-scheduling your child with too many activities can often lead to increased stress in children and their parents. It is important for parents to be cautious about how much they are scheduling their children and to encourage more free time.
Here are 5 reasons why it is important not to over-schedule your child:
- Over-scheduling can create increased stress and anxiety for both parents and children. Over the last several years there has been an increase in anxiety related disorders due to the stressors involved with over-scheduling.
- It creates less time for children to complete their homework and can cause them to have less sleep at night due to staying up later to complete their homework.
- It decreases the amount of quality time a children can spend with their family.
- Over-scheduling can cause a child to have less time for free-time and with you. Quality time doing imaginative play with your child is important in order to encourage creativity and to help develop independence in children.
- It can also cause children to have difficulty maintaining with peers due to not having enough free time to spend with them and to build their relationships.
Is over-scheduling or homework creating stress? Read here for 8 Tips to Ease Homework Time Stress.
