Suburban Warrior

I came across an article on being a so-called slacker mom. This woman's attitude has been my mantra since I became a mother. I admit I sometimes convenietly use this approach to parenting to conceal my own sheer laziness...but mostly I truly believe it.

Along those same lines, one thing that bothers me is how overscheduled our children are becoming. For instance, this time of the year brings the following questions..."is your daughter playing soccer and baseball this spring?"..."will your daughter try and advance to the older age division?"..."is she going to try out for the super All Star tumbling, rolling, squating, standing on your head gymnastics team?"...And let's not forget water fun..."is your daughter going to be on the tadpole swim team or the older stingray team?" Sheesh, she just learned not to crap in the pool...baby steps people, baby steps. Besides, does anyone simply PLAY in the pool in this day and age?? Apparently not after age 4. And what crazy parent would encourage swimming anyway?? I would refuse to get up to drive my kid to a pool at 5:00 am (or a skating rink for that matter). My God, some parents would sign their kids up for La Leche League if they could!! In the summer months we also have our Bible camps!! Actually, praise Jesus for Bible camps! Have you checked out the prices on some of those weekly camps?? They're a steal!! I have a close friend (she shall remain nameless) who signs her kids up for every church camp she possibly can!! I think they attended 6 different camp denominations in 6 weeks last summer. At one point, she was racing to pick them up from Shalom Temple and speeding over to the Jesus Loves Me Program at the Methodist church!

And this overscheduling begins early. I remember feeling like a horrible mother because my kid was almost a year old before she was enrolled in her first Gymboree Class. Well, in my defense...it took me that long because we had to take out a second mortgage in order to afford the "tuitition" to attend Gymboree (my experiences at Gymboree will be covered in a future post).

Anyhoo...its a crying shame.