Are the commitments to extracurricular activities and youth sports pulling us away from the traditional family dynamic?
Youth sports have become overwhelming at younger ages each year. The time commitment and dedication that is expected from families is very surprising, and when you have multiple kids, it becomes your life. You have multiple days a week with practices, followed by a long weekend of competitions, tournaments, possibly more preparation for upcoming commitments or even team bonding moments. Such time commitments feel it’s taking away from the power of family. Are we getting the time together as a family that we need on the weekends? How often are we coming together at the dinner table? Families are being split in multiple ways to accommodate all the children’s commitments. They are barely seeing each other on the weekend or weeknights. Families are no longer having dinners at the table together, joining in family gatherings, and even being pulled away from church services because of commitments. The Kingdom of youth sports is pulling the value of the family dynamics apart.
I do think youth sports are great for kids to be a part of. Kids will learn lessons that they will carry for the rest of their lives. Learning to work as a team, learning to win with humility and handling a loss with dignity. Punctuality, the importance of showing up, the list can go on and on. The benefits outweigh the negatives here, but how do we make sure we balance family/school/work/sports? How can we bring family back into the equation where we make it a priority to be together?
Be Intentional.
The times that you have together as a family – take advantage. Bring the family back to the dinner table to have conversations, participate in family activities, go to church when you can or stream it online. A very important thing to remember is that it’s OK to say no to some things. I know in sports, saying no isn’t always the option. However, those play dates, birthday parties, or friend gatherings it’s OK to say no and there doesn’t need to be an explanation. Be intentional in putting family first.
Things are changing like crazy in the world. We will all face challenges. Building that core family bond and keeping it will always lay a solid foundation for kids to go to when they need to breathe and will help build great core values!
