Parenting Practices: Balancing Act

Recent activities have created a conundrum in my brain.  On Friday and Saturday the 18^th and 19^th we watched Sophie’s dance performance of The Secret Garden.  Since January she has had an extra practice each week, and the last month she has been at dance class on Saturdays from 11:30 to 3:30.  

Then the week of the performance she had a blocking rehearsal Wednesday, a dress rehearsal Thursday and then the two performances.

 On top of that I sewed three dresses for the performance.  Through it all we repeated over and over, “This is too much.  There is no way we are doing the performance next year.”  

These are the three dresses (though you can't see them well)

Two of the three

But then we watch the show (which is pretty amazing) and see Sophie dancing gracefully and joyously it all seems worth it and I am already making plans for “next year.”

House staff Member

Her starring role as a bluebird (sorry about the photo quality.  I didn't have time to learn how to shoot performances)

I know this is super blurry, but you can see form and movement through it...right?

Triumphant after the show.

A new found friend who danced the role of Mary

Exchanging info so they can keep in touch over the summer.

I struggle to know what the right balance is in providing extracurricular activities for the kids.  I value family time and I don’t want to be a roadrunner. 

 So often I see something I want to photograph and I can’t stop to do it because I am in a hurry to get somewhere.  I need more time to stop and smell the roses. 

Or calendula etc...

As a general rule the kids can choose one activity per season to be involved in.  Sophie does dance and soccer.  Jacob does gymnastics and t-ball.  Ben has decided he doesn’t want to do baseball but is looking forward to soccer.  Then factor in church and play dates and time is short.

Ben kind of lives in his own little world so he doesn’t really have a lot of extracurricular interests and when he tries something he often gets frustrated because it is hard for him to focus and feel successful.  I always feel like he gets the short end of the stick socially and emotionally.

So the question is: What is the right balance?  I know I need to sacrifice for my children’s growth and development, but what is the tipping point where we are so busy we can’t take time to focus on the most important things?