This morning, as I sat at an 8:00 basketball game without a drop of coffee in my system because we were running late, I started to think about how overscheduled we all are.  We constantly hear about “the overscheduled child” but what about the overscheduled mom (or dad or caregiver to be fair)?  We are the ones that had to sign our child up for basketball, set the alarm, get breakfast ready, make sure the uniform is clean (not this time, sorry buddy), drive 30 minutes to the game all while praying to the rain Gods that the afternoon’s soccer game will be cancelled.

People always say that children need down time, time to decompress and to stimulate their brains.  Multiple studies have been done on this topic.  What about my brain?  What about my time to decompress?  The few brains cells I have left that actually function could really use some re-compressing (is that a word)?  Who knows, my brain is too fried to even know what is or isn’t a word.  I’m sure the red wine I drink may also be a contributing factor to my loss of brain cells but that’s not the point of this blog.

Where are the studies on overscheduled parents? For our children to be overscheduled it takes work from us as parents.  We can’t forget the sign up deadlines, or the shin guards, or the poster board that is due tomorrow, the carpools, the teacher gifts, school picture day, etc.  My blood pressure went up just typing all the things we do.  This year I actually forgot school picture day until my son called me from school in non-matching gym clothes with hair sticking straight up to tell me I forgot.  I managed to iron a change of clothes, get them to the school with a comb in 14 seconds flat.

What happened to the days when we were kids, oh so long ago, when there were no schedules, no running around, and no stress.  Our parents never seemed stressed, did they?  The cigarettes they smoked might have helped with the stress, but still, they seemed more relaxed.  Our parents didn’t drive us everywhere, my mother didn’t even have her license and I managed to get where I needed.  Where I needed, that was the big difference, we no longer only do what we need.  I think one day recently I actually put 4,000 miles on my car and never even left town.

We were sent outside to play kick the can.  Or in my case as an only child, to go outside and fill my pockets with rocks until my pants fell down.  That wasn’t the actual goal or instruction from my parents, it just happened.  Or to play my all-time favorite game of sitting in the bushes in front of my house and stealing the balls that came over the fence from the school yard across the street.  Now that I think about it, it’s kind of amazing that I was able to have two semi-normal children.

It’s not always our fault however.  Especially not if you have a child that tends to procrastinate.  In that case, after you finish running around and cooking dinner, and you think you might be able to decompress, with a glass of wine of course, your child asks “do you know how to tea stain paper”?  Um no, and what?  When did you find out about this assignment, oh right, 3 weeks ago and it’s due tomorrow.  I am happy to announce I can now proudly add that skill to my resume.  Go me!