how else do you sell books?
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Before I get into content, I will caveat that my family may be in the subset you speak about in your paragraph: we are rich white parents of rich white kids.
My gripe is not “over scheduled” exactly, but rather the time commitment expected for activities in high school. As a teenager, it is great to try different things and see what you like, and be well rounded. However, these days, at least at my kids’ school, it seems that whatever activity you do that is school-based, you are expected to commit to it and have no other hobbies.
My son does marching band, and it is 12-20 hours per week of practices/competitions, with no way to also do a sport. The kids that do a sport also have huge time commitments, and often training starts months before the real season.
I think it stems from a culture of achievement, which comes at the expense of balance. The culture of achievement also has its own pitfalls, and most of the high schoolers I know are way more stressed than my friend group was in high school. That may also be because there was a lot of weed smoking back then :).
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That doesn’t sound much different than my working class high school 30 years ago. Pick 1 of a sport, an art, or a part time job.
I do see some of my rich neighbors and coworkers spend stupid amounts of money on training their kids to be really good at something, but never good enough to do better than make it to a state level event. They have better Facebook posts than I have, so I feel like a failure.
Signed my 8 year old up for rec softball, it’s 3x/wk, plus karate is another 3x/wk. Definitely fills up quickly
Yeah lots of parents living vicariously through their kids with youth travel sports. There should be a traveling math team!
I do have one neighbor that has been rejected on national TV a few times now.
When I was in high school, I did sports and had a part time job, and still had more time to goof off than what I see in high schoolers today. Then again, my teams never did very well, maybe that is part of the reason.
We also spend stupid amounts of money on a sport for one of my kids, but don’t even post about it on Facebook, may be doing it wrong.
Or we need them to consider that if their cohort consists of a bunch of people wanting to get laid, they should be able to get laid among themselves.
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I tried out for the golf team, and the math team, and you would never guess which one I was cut from! I have noticed that most of the times I have golfed with someone who played in school (HS or college) to be above my serious threshold for a round.
I have an unathletic household, so I can’t comment on an average sports commitment today. So far, from what I have seen, is middle school theatre was more intense than in high school, but that seems to be a function of having a really talented program director.
The corn fields I got to see in high school math team related travels were nothing short of spectacular!
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When I was in high school, marching was a Fall activity. So you couldn’t march and play football, but you could probably do any of the Spring sports. Is it year-round now?
Anyway, I agree with you wrt achievement culture. 20 hours of marching band a week turns out a marginally better performance for the entire band vs. say 10 hours a week. But a marginally better performance for the band doesn’t really mean much to anyone outside of parents and kids who are REALLY into it. But 95% of the band is there to make friends, have fun, build teamwork, learn discipline, etc. You can do that on 10 hours.
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Anyone with the resources and wherewithal to write a book on this topic is going to be fine, yes. And everyone in this thread is probably a top 10% earner or will be eventually. If you want it from the horse’s mouth, try reddit for 4chan.
No, you are not doing it wrong. Not posting on Facebook is the best decision you will make.
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Thank you. I decline.
The option to not have an opinion here is always on the table.
I’d assume for more reasons than just scheduling
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Social media for me, but not for thee?
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It is still fall. There is also winter percussion that many of the band do as well, but my son skips due to a winter sport.
I agree with your second paragraph. I wish for many activities there were two varieties: one more intense for those looking for that, and one more recreational for the rest. Even the JV teams have crazy time commitments for some sports: likely causes some kids to not exercise instead.
Just catching up.
This thread has 138 comments in 6 days. Many of the comments are long and thoughtful, I tried to read them all. The topic seems to have hit a nerve.
#2 is a bit tough to do at the moment.
Job security is a key factor in the dating lives of young men in Vallejo – of the 10 men I spoke with aged 19 to 31 living in their familial homes in Vallejo, nine were single, and several emphasised that they were focused on work as opposed to dating.
“Back in the day, maybe [women] were settling for less. I feel like times have changed,” says Christopher, a Vallejo resident who lives with his parents and two brothers. He said he was currently prioritizing his welding apprenticeship over meeting a partner. “They want a guy with a job. They want a guy with a car. A provider.”