If you want the several times a week obligations, that's OK too. Some people thrive on that activity, but it does make it difficult to get your school work and your house work done. For the super-busy moms who are tired and wanting a less chaotic life, I am telling you, it is OK to say no to the outside activities and create your own at home. Take advantage of family day events. For moms of many like myself, it is nearly impossible to allow everyone to have their own activity and still have strong, peaceful, really-connected-to-each-other family life. It's OK to not keep up with doing what everyone else is doing and forge your own life your own way.
"Last year, at a workshop, the speaker admonished us that sometimes the one-hour foreign language co-op isn't worth it. That one-hour co-op meant she had to spend two hours getting her other kids ready to travel, 30 minutes each way traveling to the co-op, a stressful hour managing other siblings who weren't in the class, and one hour per day preparing the kid who was getting the enrichment from the coop. It added up to 7-8 hours' work for a single, one-hour-a-week class, covering material she could cover at home in four hours tops, minus the gas, stress, and hassle.
After that workshop, we cut the one-hour-per-week foreign language co-op.....Too many irons in the fire outside the home will get a schooler burned out. This year, we're resting and enjoying the warmth of the fire at the hearth of our home instead.
A simpler schedule, with fewer outside obligations, put the home back in our school."
Read the rest of the article here.
