{"id":120340,"date":"2020-11-08T11:39:51","date_gmt":"2020-11-08T16:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.formeduc.ca\/is-my-child-too-busy\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T08:06:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T13:06:57","slug":"is-my-child-too-busy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.formeduc.ca\/en\/is-my-child-too-busy\/","title":{"rendered":"Is my child too busy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>How many of you are exhausted from &#8220;running around&#8221; between work, home, dance classes, soccer, appointments and errands, going out with your spouse or friends? Rest assured, you&#8217;re not alone in feeling overwhelmed, having trouble balancing work, family and friends, and feeling like there aren&#8217;t enough 24 hours in the day&#8230; <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Children, too, are sometimes exhausted by the hectic schedules we impose on them, leaving them at daycare or school from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., enrolling them in sports or cultural activities, accepting almost every invitation to friends&#8217; parties, or planning their vacations from A to Z. Doing nothing is seen as a waste of time, and children are often helpless when faced with a period of free time, not knowing what to do to fill the void.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the time, we impose these hectic schedules on ourselves because of society&#8217;s expectations of us. Have you ever wondered: What will my friends think if we don&#8217;t go on vacation this year? What will my child&#8217;s teacher think if I don&#8217;t sign him or her up for an after-school activity? What will the other parents think if I don&#8217;t accept their invitation to a friend&#8217;s party, even though I already have 3 planned this month?   <\/p>\n<p>To enable children to blossom and develop their full potential, while giving them moments of respite, it&#8217;s essential to make choices based on their needs and interests, while respecting our own limits and not what those around us might think of us.<\/p>\n<p>To do this, we must first learn, as parents, to let go of our guilt when we say &#8220;no&#8221;, stop comparing ourselves to others and not panic if our child hasn&#8217;t tried 22 activities before kindergarten. In short, we have to listen to our bodies and our heads. When you&#8217;re exhausted, your child probably is too.  <\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Here are a few tips for planning a healthy agenda for the whole family:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Make time to play with your children.<\/li>\n<li>When you&#8217;re on vacation, ask your children what they&#8217;d like to do. Maybe they&#8217;d like to stay at home and relax.<\/li>\n<li>Choose sports or cultural activities that won&#8217;t take up too many hours of your time each week.<\/li>\n<li>If you have several children, try to match their activities. Ideally, both activities should take place in the same place at the same time. <\/li>\n<li>Suggest different activities to your child that match your criteria and let them make their own choices.<\/li>\n<li>Make time for yourself. The kids do activities, so why not choose one for yourself too. <\/li>\n<li>Keep in mind that children also learn, develop and blossom when they spend quality time with family and friends.<\/li>\n<li>Take time out with your partner to do things you enjoy and talk about your day. Raising children is important, but you can&#8217;t forget about each other as a couple. <\/li>\n<li>Respect the sleep needs of the whole family. If you find that your child is sleep-deprived due to the timing of family activities, you may want to reconsider your choice of activities. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The hectic schedules we impose on our families can have an impact on our children&#8217;s physical and mental health, as well as on their behavior. It&#8217;s not at all necessary for your child to have a minister&#8217;s schedule for those around you to perceive you as good parents. <\/p>\n<p>Having quality time also means having the leisure to take your time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How many of you are exhausted from &#8220;running around&#8221; between work, home, dance classes, soccer, appointments and errands, going out with your spouse or friends? Rest assured, you&#8217;re not alone in feeling overwhelmed, having trouble balancing work, family and friends, and feeling like there aren&#8217;t enough 24 hours in the day&#8230; Children, too, are sometimes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1175,"featured_media":90462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[164],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-classifiee"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is my child too busy? - Form\u00e9duc<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Read Form\u00e9duc&#039;s article for some tips on how to plan a healthy agenda for the whole family.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.formeduc.ca\/en\/is-my-child-too-busy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is my child too busy? 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