What kind of errands....

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-27-2005
What kind of errands....
2007
Wed, 08-31-2005 - 1:41pm

Do you run on a daily basis? Weekly basis? Monthly basis?

I've often heard people say that they need a lot of time during the week to run errands and that those errands would otherwise take up their evenings and weekends if they had to WOH ft. It made me curious because I just don't seem to have many errands to run at all. Are we just lazy :-)?

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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-2004
Tue, 09-06-2005 - 10:40am
Thanks for the straight 411! Maybe it's not a "sporty bias" I'm seeing, but rather a "flexibility bias"... in which case some of us will get slagged every time.
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-2004
Tue, 09-06-2005 - 10:44am
If it's all based on posts PNJ has made in the past, then that certainly puts me at a disadvantage. I still think there's a bias at work in the thread. But it might not be a sporty bias but rather a flexibility bias. Susannah just posted a remarkable exegesis, which I'm still struggling to wrap my newbie brain around...
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-11-2005
Tue, 09-06-2005 - 10:45am
i agree. i love to ride ds in my bike trailer to places like the park and even the y but we stay on the sidewalks and trails, never the streets.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-1997
Tue, 09-06-2005 - 11:01am
You're almost right. It's also the case that all of us have sort of idiosyncracies that can set the board on fire. I know for instance, that all I have to do is mention a couple of things about my personal beliefs and way of doing things (longtime board people, think extended nursing, unmedicated childbirth, TV, fashion, makeup, vending machines in schools) and I'm going to start a brouhaha. So mostly I stay out of the fashion threads or whatever because I don't wanna go through the "my kids wear secondhand clothes from yard sales" fight again. Felicia has to know full well exactly what she is doing when she posts things like "I have small kids, where would I go?" She isn't stupid.
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-2004
Tue, 09-06-2005 - 11:17am

Your post was so thoughtful I want to reply, if belatedly. IMO it's true that most kids don't have trouble adjusting to full day school, be it K or first grade, but a lot of them do. It doesn't matter whether they've already been in organized sports beforehand, maybe because school makes somewhat different demands than sports.

And I have to agree that early exposure to organized sports can be a ticket to social success later on, and that encouraging that can be worthwhile, up to a point. But IME, plenty of boys don't, for whatever reason, enjoy organized sports as much, and they can still have social success on the basis of lots of other interests and personal qualities.

I'm not even sure it's always worthwhile for parents to suggest, encourage, or push any particular interests or activities on their kids, even though that's the currently popular or even dominant parenting style. IME, many kids figure out what they want to be involved in on their own.

I think non-sportiness and even parental non-interest in encouraging kids to do sports or other organized activities ought to be considered within the spectrum of normal, typical, unremarkable parenting.

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-2004
Tue, 09-06-2005 - 11:23am
That PNJ, she sure can keep a long thread going, and without even posting.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-1997
Tue, 09-06-2005 - 11:33am

I don't disagree with anything you have written. I don't think there is any value in pushing a child who doesn't want to be in organized sports into them. We have pretty much followed our children's lead on the sports thing, making it clear to them that we want them to be physically active, but not requiring any particular activity. Over the years they have both taken tennis, golf, horseback riding and swim lessons (not all at the same time, lol), both have played basketball on recreational teams, and my older son started competitive basketball two seasons ago. The younger one plays baseball...actually lives and breathes baseball, which was wierd, because nobody in the family is a baseball fan and big brother has zero zilch nada interest in baseball (which is actually probably a plus giving little brother another activity completely his own). The only activity we have ever insisted on is that they get moderately competent at swimming because they go to summer camps and other places where they are near the water and I think it's a safety issue.

They also get plenty of exercise just living in a neighborhood where kids come by and ask "wanna go play soccer in the park?" Or in the case of my elder son, he get's IM's from school friends saying "Wanna go bike riding/skateboarding, etc.

I was kind of curious as to whether Felicia's kids non-interest in sports reflected their own non-interest or her own which is why I asked her what would happen if one of the kids got interested in trying a season because friends were playing and they thought it would be fun, but she's chosen not to answer.

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-2004
Tue, 09-06-2005 - 11:47am

You're right, at this point it might be enlightening to have a clearer picture of what Felicia's kids exposure to sports and other organized activities actually has been, how they received it, whether they, especially Petey, have indicated any interest, and so on.

Not to gossip excessively, but I have a feeling it also has to do with a family dynamic in which a mom expects a dad to take a role here, is miffed that he fails to, and then puts her foot down about the scope of her own role.

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-27-1998
Tue, 09-06-2005 - 11:52am

You are right, I apologize I was confusing you with another poster.

PumpkinAngel

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-2004
Tue, 09-06-2005 - 12:00pm
Of course you're right, watching isn't doing. Kids don't know if they really like an activity until they've put a quarter or a season into it. But is it realistic to say they should cycle through a lot of activities they showed no initial interest in just for the sake of finding things they can stay with? I suppose if a kid is really passive about getting into things, then that's the way it has to be. But my kids, and lots of kids I know, seem to gravitate toward the things they enjoy on a long term basis without necessarily being led there by parents.

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