SOMEONE HAS TO TRANSPORT THE RUGRATS:

Bring It On: "Our kids are over-scheduled!" is a major worry and rallying cry for parents today. But is it really just a suburban legend? (Bryant Urstadt, July 8, 2007, Boston Globe)

A study published in "Social Policy Report" last fall...differed significantly from the conventional wisdom. It confounds the notion that children are too busy, despite what many adults think they see. For their research, a team of three professors led by Joseph L. Mahoney, an associate professor of psychology at Yale, took a close look at several preexisting studies of time-use data and a wide range of developmental indicators. They found that most kids ages 5 to 18 are busy simply because they want to do a lot of different things, not because their parents force them to. "Enjoyment," for instance, was listed over trying to get into college as a primary reason for joining a team or club.

The study also found that kids are actually spending less time on extracurricular activities than word on the suburban street seems to have it, with the average school-age child participating in only about five hours of organized activities per week and an astonishing 40 percent participating in none at all. The study’s authors confirmed links between participation in organized activities and indicators of a well-adjusted child. And even the crazy-busy kids, the 3 to 6 percent who averaged 20 hours a week or more in organized activities, were no worse off – and sometimes better off – than the kids who did nothing at all. Which makes a parent like me wonder: Could "downtime" be overrated? Has culture over-hyped the busy kid?

It has nothing to do with the kids, just parental griping.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 8, 2007 8:06 AM