1 Mother 2 Another

A few months ago, I was chatting with the
mom of one of the girls in Maddie’s ballet class about how
busy our lives had become recently; Maddie had ballet class once a
week and then rehearsal every Saturday for the Nutcracker, and I
was resenting having to be at the studio twice a week.


“I know what you mean,” the other mom lamented.
“My girls’ schedule feels so busy we don’t have
time to turn around! She’s got ballet on Thursdays with
rehearsals Saturday afternoon, gymnastics on Wednesdays, soccer on
Tuesdays and Saturday mornings, and of course karate on Mondays.
Plus her piano lessons at home Friday afternoons!”


Her daughter was six.


And suddenly my twice-a-week commitment didn’t look so
bad.

The older Maddie gets the more she’s
interested in trying new things – which I am absolutely, 100%
for. Maddie wants to play baseball, and ice skate, and go to
invention camp, and take ballet, and study piano, and learn more
about the solar system . . . the list is endless, and I want her to
take a bite out of everything that tempts her intellectual palate.


Just not all at once.


I haven’t figured out the balance, here, and I know one of
the factors in this equation is how much I teach. I am away from
the house teaching for two dinners a week, and Maddie’s got
ballet once a week after school, and suddenly my afternoon/evenings
with her feel preciously sparse. I also want to allow her to enjoy
being a kid – to have room for after-school playdates, or to
come home and crash from a hard day, or to simply allow the time
for what she and Cora did yesterday: get out the hula hoops and
have hula hoop competitions that turned into a “circus”
in the backyard for over an hour.


I want to give her space to be a kid.


On the other hand, this is the age to sample everything, before she
has to “specialize” and focus on just a few passions.
Schoolwork will do nothing but increase, and any hobby –
ballet, piano, a sport, whatever – will demand larger and
larger shares of her time as she gets older. So logic would suggest
that now is the time for her to try a bit of everything.


I don’t have any answers here; I only know that I want to
give her both room to breathe and opportunities to flourish. And
I’m doing the best I can to find that balance.