Am I the only slack mother

That doesn't have a child enrolled in sports/gymnastics/dance/swimming etc??

I get made to feel like a bad parent because my daughter is not going to anything...

I honestly don't know how people get the time to do this. After school is just full on in our house. Getting dinner and getting the baths done, then bed time after dinner. It just doesn't stop until they're in bed.

On weekends... do parents really spend all weekend going to their kids sporting events?

What happened to family time and kids having time to run around the back yard?

No your not the only one.

My daughter is in year 1 and she does not do any extra activities after school. The boys are in pre school two days a week and again they don't do any other acivities.

Yes totally agree that after school by the time we get home do homework and dinner and then bed we don't have time for much else.

Much prefer my kids to be playing around outside when the weather is good after school with free play after being told what they have to do all day at school.

I was only enrolled in hockey then netball during primary school in NZ. My parents admitted to me a few years ago that they felt bad about it, but I never wanted to do any of it. I liked helping out on the farm when we lived in NZ and during high school I liked having my weekends free to do what I wanted.
That being said.. we are planning on enrolling our son into a few classes (once he's old enough) and let him pick which one/s he wants to keep. I don't think not doing any of them is bad parenting, like you said, family time and having fun in your own backyard is just as good. Most of my happy memories are playing with my sisters in the yard and going away on day trips with the family.

No, you are not the only one. Thought I was too until I saw this. My eldest has just started school and the other two go to preschool 3 days a week. With a DH that works shifts, homework and everything else, I feel thats enough for now! By the weekend they are exhausted and I prefer them to have some free time (playing outside etc)

Both my girls (aged 4 & almost 3) just do swimming lessons once a week.

I was just saying to DF last night that maybe I should enrol them in little kids soccer or something because I was feeling a bit slack as well.
But hey, plenty of time for that when they're older and they can choose their activities.

I never did any outside activities as a kid until I got older and started pony club and horse events. My DD1 does swimming ATM but once she starts prep we will stop. With sports I did school sport and that was enough. We had school sport and played against other schools do I did that but nothing after school. Training was on our lunch time. smile

we tried swimming in the january holidays.... dd hated it so much that I didn't want to force the issue. So we'll go with it when school does their lessons.

DD is very musically minded and can pick up tunes on her keyboard really easily. I feel like she should be doing lessons but we have absolutely no where for a piano or an electric keyboard.. I have mentally rearranged the whole house trying to think of how we can do it and there's just not a single spare wallspace.

I don't know. We've had some great weekends... a couple weekends ago we went for a drive to the next town and bought some old swings to do up. DD was helping me sand them in the shed this last weekend.

Probably just getting the mummy guilts because one of dd's rabbits died yesterday. I don't know why, it just did - the other one is fine. That and the fact that she still misses our dog dearly and I feel like that's my fault. I still miss her too. sad She'd really enjoy doing gymnastics too but I just don't see how we can!

Your not the only one Chayls. Mine dont either. Mum does say to me sometimes they should be doing something. But the logistics of it, do not work !!! Yes in the ideal world I would love for DD to do some sort of dancing and for DS to do bmx or a martial art but in reality, I work full time, I get home at 5.45, so how the heck am I supposed to take them ? Mum offered that she will take them when they need to, BUT the other major hurdle, is that I have shared care of them, week on week off, so that is another black mark against the extra curricular activities. Soooo it is what it is for the time being. They will just have to wait until the logistics work in their favour, sadly. However in saying all that they don't complain. They play outside on their bikes and we go out on the weekends to compensate somewhat for that.

Yes I feel bad, but that's life of a full time working mum !

PS they did swimming in their younger years, that I took them too each Saturday morning. They LOVE that, they do ask me to take them to the pool every now and then. So sometimes I will, and they just love mucking around swimming in the pool. So although not a FIXED extra activity, it is fun for them.

We don't do any activities either. For 2 reasons

1: I don't see that it is worth the stress, when we have such a nice family dynamic going on

2: I don't see a need to enrol into structured activities that we can replicate as a family and on our own time with more individual freedom; for now at least but this may change when the kids are older.

Dd didn't do anything until she started at school. With me working shift work it was too difficult to commit to anything on a regular basis as I couldn't guarantee I would be able to take her! (actually, I lie, I just remembered she did ballet for a term or so when about 3, which was organized so on days I was working my mum finished work early on Friday and took her for me. Then they changed the day and it didn't work anymore.)

When she started school swimming became a non-negotiable activity. I think it's really important for children to know how to swim. Dd used to love it but now she doesn't and complains about having to do lessons but I have made it a rule (she loves swimming but doesn't like being told what to do at lessons! She also has an over inflated image of how good she is in comparison to reality! Lol. I told her once she could beat daddy in a race of 10laps of the pool then she could stop. Hahaha)

She also does gym, netball, multi sports, and has just stopped flippaball but wants to pick up hockey, tennis and lacrosse! Lol. It's a bit of a nightmare to fit it all in, particularly with the anoint of homework she seems to get but we make it work because she enjoys it (with the exception of swimming) and I think it's good for her. smile

Our week goes like this:

Monday (our free day) - school, homework (write speech, spelling, reading, mathletics and weekly challenge if time), dinner, bath, read in bed/play a game, bed

Tuesday - school, after school care (where she does multisports-this gets her involved but I don't have to pick her up and take her anywhere, which is good with my work schedule), homework (spelling & reading finish speech if not already) dinner, bath, read in bed/play a game, bed

Wednesday - school, homework (spelling, reading, finish weekly challenge, mathletics), swimming, dinner, bath, read in bed/play a game, bed

Thursday - netball practice (before school), school, netball, homework (spelling and reading), dinner, bath, read in bed/play a game, bed

Friday - school, gym, dinner, bath, read in bed/play a game, bed

Weekends are free. Flippaball used to be on a Sunday arvo which although a pain if we wanted to go away was good in that DH would take her while I had a nap before working nightshift Sunday.

Bedtime in our house is 7.30 (lights out by 8) and dinner bath bed routine normally starts by 6. We fit it all in but it's a pain trying to get everything done. And I'm not sure how people do it with 2+ children. Lol. Ds currently does nothing (other than mainly music which my sister takes him to on mon while I grab a brief nap after work) but as he gets older will want to do stuff too I expect (and again swimming will be compulsory). My only saving grace is that by the time ds is old enough for school and all the activities that come with it, dd will be 12 or older and be able to be dropped off while I take ds elsewhere if needed. :s

I don't think it's a huge problem to not do anything and like I said ours has evolved only since she started school. But I think swimming is very important hence why I make it compulsory, and I like the fact that dd is interested in different sports as it teaches her things like being a team player (can't just not go coz don't feel like it etc as everyone is relying on you), as well as ball handling skills, gym helps flexibility etc, and the multisports enables her to try different sports to see if there's something else she might be interested in. smile

No you're not the only one!
I think it's good for little ones to do one or two activities/week (if they don't go to childcare/kindy) so they can socialise, but I think some parents expect their school age kids to do too much. I think if school age kids are doing after school activities 4-5 days/week they a) don't have time to free play and be kids b) don't have time to focus on their homework c) their parents feel absolutely knackered.
I think it's good for kids to TRY different activities so they can find something they can enjoy but I don't think they should be expected to do sports and be musical geniuses at the same time. Some people seem to live vicariously through their kids and end up having no lives themselves...