What kind of errands....
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What kind of errands....
| 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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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.
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.
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.
You are right, I apologize I was confusing you with another poster.
PumpkinAngel
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