When I was younger, my mother made sure my brothers and I dabbled in a bit of everything. During the course of my childhood, I participated in extracurricular activites such as dance, gymnastics, yearbook staff, tennis, softball, basketball, swim lessons, church group...I'm sure there are many more, but thanks to selective memory, I only remember those few. I suppose my mom just wanted us to be active, get socialized and maybe even possibly find our talent or niche. Because by the time we reached middle school, we were pretty much left to make the decision of one or two things that we wanted to participate in - I think the idea of driving three kids back and forth from each of our different activities proved to be a daunting task.
I personally don't think that my mom's signing us up for a vast array of activities was a bad thing. And we did A LOT of different activites. However, I don't remember never having been able to be bored and use my imagination. I'm also quite the artist, as are both of my brothers. And who can be an artist without being creative and imaginitive?
I also believe that persuading your children to take part in extracurricular activities makes them less likely to get involved in "recreational" activities, if you know what I mean...and also the added perk of knowing that your kid has to maintain a certain grade point average to participate in certain activities they might love.
When it came to choosing the activity I wanted to continue to participate in, I chose dancing. I loved how it made me feel, and I greatly credit my 20+ years of dancing experience with helping me to have a desire to maintain a fit and healthy lifestyle today. It was also an outlet for my artistic creativity, as I loved choreographing - and always created my own solo performances for competitions and recitals.
While I can't say I completely kept out of trouble during my teenage years, I know that I could have been a lot worse off. Even though I went to high school parties and *gasp* drank alcohol and smoked the occasional joint, I managed to graduate high school with a 3.8 GPA, go to college and now I manage a household, have a loving relationship with my husband, and care for the two best things in my life: Tanner and Breckin. All in all, I didn't do too badly.
Being bored and imaginitive is completely wonderful for toddlers - that is how they learn, but I don't think it's OK for a 12-yr old to sit in their room bored and end up doing something mischievous. My Tanner is a wonderful little artist. He is perfectly happy coloring all day - he doesn't even use coloring books anymore, all he wants is a pile of blank paper and he can go on for hours. He is always so excited about and proud of his "masterpieces". I can't even remember what color my refrigerator is because I haven't seen it in years. He is 5 now, so I try to pull him away from drawing from time to time to go outside and get some fresh air, run around and play. We also enroll him in beginner recreational sports. He was an only child for so long and we like to get him socialized with kids his own age. Even though he has a brother now, he won't be able to really talk and play with him for a while. I absolutely intend on letting Tanner try a little bit of everything - and hopefully around his middle school years, he will have found his talent or niche, or just something he is happy doing. Last season he played soccer...this season we are signing him up for baseball. He also LOVES swimming and Jake and I truly believe he has a talent in that - maybe he'll be on a swim team someday. We aren't going to force him continue to do anything he doesn't enjoy...but we do feel it is our job as parents to introduce him to as many of the the activities out there that we can, so he can hopefully truly discover something he loves. I don't see anything unhealthy about that. And hey, if in the end, all he wants to do is draw and paint, then so be it.
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