In today’s world, children have the opportunity to be involved in any activity they desire, whether it’s sports, cheerleading, or even obscure martial arts. There is a point, however, where the child takes on too many activities and begins to become stressed. A child may volunteer to participate in these extracurricular activities, but most of the time a parent is at the base of the problem. Children who are involved in many activities leave little to no room for family time. Free time is almost nonexistent to today’s youth, and thus limits a child’s potential to become imaginative and inspired. Over-scheduling is a common problem in our world today and without proper parental education, it may become another expectation that a child must meet.

Many parents have the desire for their child to fit in and attempt to fill this wish with an unnecessary array of sports and clubs. When a child’s parent was younger, he or she did not have the opportunity to participate in the wide selection of activities that are available today. They feel like since they missed out on these activities they must live through their children. They have a void that they believe will be filled if their child participates in the many activities that they did not have access to when they were younger. This belief is detrimental to our youth today, and will certainly stunt a child’s ability to enjoy themselves. Children want to feel successful in the eyes of their parents and do not have the permission to just be a kid.

The over-scheduling of our youth means that there is much less time to spend riding a bike or skipping rocks on the pond. This lack of free time causes premature stress that adolescents are not developed enough to cope with properly. Free time is an excellent way for a child to relax and prepare themselves for upcoming events, however with the growing number of activities that kids are involved in, they do not allow the necessary cool down period of the day. The stress of a child continues to rise and begins to affect their physical and mental well-being. The child becomes plagued with fatigue and may develop headaches or stomachaches. Adding to the already prevalent stress of extracurricular activities is the stress contributed from school. Parents want their child to be a “jack of all trades”, and academics are no exception. Putting together the stress of both school and extracurricular activities is a recipe for disaster. Every child needs an unallocated portion of the day where they are able to wind down.

The youth of today are becoming more pressured than previous generations. With academics, extracurricular activities, and family time all fighting for dominance, the definition of childhood has become perverted. Gone are the days of sitting in the backyard forming mud pies. The freedom of being a child has been thrown away and now the structure of an average adult has been adopted. Children are unable to handle the effects of these busy schedules and in turn, become filled with anxiety. Dropping one or more activities is the right thing to do if a child is becoming frustrated, because in terms of psychological well-being, less is more.