Parents get themselves stuck in the rat race of extracurricular activities that suck up limited family time.

Too many parents mistakenly equate cramming their family schedule full of team sports and other activities as good parenting.

Spend some time with you're kids.

And definitely, regardless of finances, cancel the cableTV. It will hurt for a few weeks but after a month you will realize it is the best thing you ever did for your family.

Kids don't need so much structured play. They need unstructured play for cognitive growth, and maybe parents are getting wise to it.

Now is a good time for the boomers to forget how the generation before them force-fed them the life lessons on how to become a good yuppie.

This might not be bad. Many current studies show that kdis today have too much extra curricular activities and are running ragged. They need physical activity for health sakes, but having a family activity like bike riding, playing a sport at a family, walking etc. each day or every other day is a great way to build family unity and physical activity while controlling costs. Perhaps kids can go back to playing and learning to be creative in their outdoor play instead of having to have it always structured.

So we get news this week that Utah's job market is the hottest in the country. Then this story. What is it with the media? When did they stop REPORTING and start manufacturing news?

Right on with dumping the tube!
Turns their minds to mush.

How about the fact that the cost to have a kid participate in these activities is way to high anyway.

Maybe the kids should learn how to entertain themselves. I agree with "Blessing in Disquise", cancel the cable, cancel the internet.

As a kid I played one sport at a time. Now I see kids that play soccer, baseball, dance, etc., all during the same time period. Their entire week is dedicated to sports. On top of that they have every video game system and the newest game available. I had a bicycle and a baseball glove. I never needed video games because my friends and I just played real live games. Why do these kids need to play organized sports. My neighborhood could organize a baseball or basketball game in about 60 seconds. We had a great time and I have great memories from those days.

This is good and bad news. Parents will have the opportunity to spend individual time with their children but it will almost likely result with children spending more time in front of a TV. Parents putting all their efforts in sports for children are basically avoiding parenthood and giving their children a sense of family. Kids grow up thinking the coach is their father and mentor and that sports is more important than family. As these kids grow up and disconnect from their parents the parents wonder why their own children don't talk to them, unless its about the game they just left. Parents should be making more efforts in bonding with their children in a one on one. That is what children really want anyway, they need their mothers and dads, not a coach as their mentor. Too many sports has taken children away from their parents and there is no shame in being at home with your children, relaxing and talking and no stress in getting their kids to the game on time.

This is great news for kids! They don't need to be doing 3 sports at a time!

If there's a recession going on, I haven't noticed it. There are tons of kids still playing sports. The difference is not noticeable.

I don't think it has to do with the economy so much as it has to do with more parents finally realizing that they are over-scheduling their kids. Let kids be kids! Your 3-year-old doesn't have to be the next David Beckham or Kobe Bryant or whatever. Just let them have fun.

"That's been the hardest thing for us," Kalikakis said, "not being able to just say, 'yes, yes, yes' to everything you want to do." - you mean you might have to actually say "No!" to your kids, if so, get the psychiatrists couch ready for later in their life - "My parents were mean to me, they didn't do what I wanted!"

So how do you talk to your kids about drastically cutting expenses without scaring them — or making them feel it's their fault? ... You basically so "No, we can't afford it at this time."

We have adopted the worlds idea that we need to pay for all activities, keep constantly busy, schedule our time, never say "No", keep-up with the "Jones'".

Most of us found activities when we were young, put together our own games, enjoyed a unscheduled life & got used to hearing "No!"

AIMHO

What does it cost to go (walk or bike) to the park and play kick ball or tag?

Certainly tighter budgets have to do with this, but what is missing from the article of the 'value' for the dollar. Our kids have participated in multiple recreation center leagues and they are not all the same. We experienced some that were very poorly run and did not return for that reason. We still are spending the recreation dollar on our children, but investing at a different venue that gives better value and better customer oriented service (an important value that the present generation often overlooks).

Funny because my son played Spring soccer through the Kearns rec this Spring and there were at LEAST 8 teams of Pre-K (3-5 year old). Seemed like there were as many kids playing this year as there were last year but that the season was shorter. Also, if they would get better coaches maybe more parents would sign up. I paid $36 and my sons coach never held a practice nor did he teach the kids anything! Nothing! We showed up twice a week for games was all and half the time the coach wasn't there. Maybe if Kearns Rec did a better job as recruiting coaches they would have a better turn out. Next year I am going with Mid-Valley soccer for my son.

Maybe Janee should have saved some of the huge earnings she made when she worked in the mortgage business so her kids would have something after the inevitable bubble burst. We all saw it coming, not all of us bought houses and cars we couldn't afford.

I don't think you need to pay money to let your kids have fun playing sports.
Whatever happend to neighborhood hockey, football & Soccer?
What about Hiking, paddleing around in the lake on a raft?
Or running?
There are plenty of activities that can give kids exersize that won't drain a parents budget & will keep them spending less time on the XBOX.

We raised our nine living kids on a very small budget--you might have even called it poverty. Our kids did have a few extra-curricular activities, but mostly thru church and one school activity each. They also worked and paid many of their own expenses--paper routes, picking fruit, working on farms or in fast foods. Each put himself thru college, with only a little help from us--about all we could give was encouragement!
With the exception of one son who has attended some college and works construction and another who is handicapped, all have finished college, two with advanced degrees. Five served missions. All of them know how to work hard (and play hard, too).
I'm not sure that this wasn't a more useful raising than all the fun, video and computer games, and sports activities that parents feel the need to provide today. I guess we'll find out when our kids' kids are raised!
Meantime, spend time with your kids! That's the best gift you can give them. If your attitude is happy, your kids will learn happiness.

Kearns Rec User... if you didn't like the coach get off your duff and do it yourself.

Until you've coached a herd of 3 to 5 year olds yourself you have no room to talk. Its not the easiest age group to teach sport concepts to.

Volunteer coaches are parents just like you, many with no practical knowledge of soccer or coaching experience. Despite the economy many hold jobs, have families and are busy commuting around just as you do.

Help your rec league out and volunteer yourself to coach.

Kearns Rec user: If you're complaining about the coaches, might I suggest YOU volunteering to be your child's coach? I work for a city recreation department, and every sports season we struggle with finding enough parents who say they'll help coach their child's team. At that point we have to call the parents of all the children on the team and BEG them to coach. If more parents who were capable (which I guarantee it isn't hard to coach 4 year old soccer) volunteered to coach, then all of our children could have a positive experience and learn the skills their parents are paying for.

Parents, I see empty gyms, tennis courts and baseball fields. Many of these are available for the asking. If you hate to pay for the uniforms and the referees, organize games for your kids and teach them how to organize their own. My favorite memories of playing sports in junior high and high school were coed softball games at an elementary school playground and basketball pickup games and league games at the church. My pals and I played basketball almost every day before school on a gravel lot, and in the evenings we would walk to a church or to a blacktop at a local condo complex. Our ward didn't have much money, so sometimes we had to use masking tape to number our shirts, but we had fun and even won our stake tournament most years, which gave us the chance to go to regional and area tournaments. Nowadays I watch parents bust their budgets as they taxi their children almost every night to various activities -- soccer, softball, karate, gymnastics, dancing, Junior Jazz, and on and on. One young mother I know skips many family get-togethers because she has so much money tied up in kids' activities.

If the media didn't talk about a recession, there wouldn't be one.
This is bogus. I've seen recessions and this is no recession.

You want this recession to go away? There is an easy way to do it: Elect a democrat into the white house, and suddenly the media will stop talking about a recession and will be reporting on how wonderful everything is.

In response to Kearns rec: I am not sure how soccer is run in Utah, but here in Southern California spring soccer is about having fun. My three grandchildren go to games twice a week and have no practices. My 5 year old grandson doesn't understand the game but he has a grand time running around. Here, Fall soccer is when they have the l-o-o-ng practices on School nights and games on Saturday. That is when they have intense instruction. Maybe "Kearns Rec" is not aware of this practice. Perhaps this is the way soccer is run in Utah also. Just a thought.

Typical. You complain about the coaching but won't coach yourself. Don't tell us you don't know enough about soccer to coach 3- 5 year olds. Donate your time or please stop complaining. Too many parents want other people to do a great job as a coach, scoutmaster, etc while they watch and criticize. Make it happen yourself, especially if you are not pleased with the current results.

SO - ya REALLY wanna "take over" and HELP kid's "cope" in life ?. Here's a great example to do "just that". OH MY - "police arrested a 15-year old male Sunday (where HE should of been in Church with both HIS parent's in the first place)- for investigation of residential burglary and criminal trespass". This "spin-off" from the new I, Me and My generation, needs to stop, the ONLY WAY to stop it is 2 ways, 1.) start charging them as an adult and place them into an ADULT PRISON, or 2,) bring back the Draft, if for anything else, to "clean up OUR gene pool, of garbage like this on our planet Earth we all live on for a short time." It's that simple. That'll give the women / mom's real choice.

I signed up to be a coach at the Kearns Rec Center. My daughter wasn't old enough to play yet, but I figured she could watch the older kids so she would know what to do when she was old enough to play.

One the one hand, yeah, maybe the rec center should have given us time space & time to practice.

But on the other hand; you there, Mr Whiny Parent; you sound like you're ambitious enough to be a great coach.

Or do you just like to whine on the Internet?

FWIW, our team finished second.

My coaching consisted of translating into English what the daddies of the Latino kids said to do. No one from the Kearns rec center has called me back to ask to coach again......

This is no joke. I live in a very rural area, and feel it is important for my kids to have outside friendships through sports and activities. They love participating, and we make sure their grades stay high, and there is family time set aside. My kids usually participate in 1 sport and 1 other activity at any given time, but we just aren't going to be able to do it anymore. Our very small school can no longer afford to use buses to take kids to school-sponsored games. I am chauffeuring a group of school kids to a track meet tomorrow 20 miles away. My son has a baseball game tonight, 35 miles away. Some of the older kids had school basketball games last winter and had to be driven 2 ½ hours each way. It’s bad enough to have to pay higher fees for the kids to join, but the fuel prices now are just killing us. Maybe you don’t see much of a difference in kids’ participation in extra-curricular activities in urban areas, but it has really affected the kids living in more remote areas.

There are some rude people out there! I commented as Kearns Rec user and the reason I don't volunteer to coach soccer is because I GREW UP IN POVERTY WITH PARENTS WHO COULD NOT AFFORD TO PUT ME IN SPORTS OR DANCE OR GYMNASTICS OR ANYTHING ELSE SO I DON'T KNOW HOW TO PLAY SOCCER. I would not be a good coach as I know nothing about the sport! I am allowing my children to participate in the sports they want to since I did not get to as a child and if I knew the rules and I knew how the game was played I WOULD VOLUNTEER so back off! All I was saying was that I pay a lot of money for 8 games & a uniform but the coach didn't even teach the kids any skills. Nothing. Basically I paid $36 to have my kid run around for an hour twice a week for 4 weeks. I could have taken him to the park for free and let him do that. But I signed up for soccer in hopes of him learning the GAME.

The little ones barely understand the concept of getting the ball into the net. They are all going to run around and chase each other in a pack. That is just the way it is in ALL leagues (I live in CA). If it is not fun for your child or too much money for you, then you should opt to do something else. But you really should not expect too much from your pee-wee no matter what sport he/she plays, they just don't have the attention span or coordination. It was the comraderie of playing on a "team" with "real uniforms" that my kids really liked when they were little. Now that they are older, they have the coordination and skills to be very good players and enjoy the actual sport and competition.

Really? This story is shows how out-of-touch and insensitive the Deseret News really is to families who are not white, LDS, and upper class. What's next, a story about how hard it is to make Hummer payments these days?

How much do you expect a 3-5 year old to learn about soccer. Most the kids that age are more likely to be throwing grass at each other or picking dandylions than practicing. From my experience (as a youth soccer coach)having 3-5 year olds practice is like trying to herd cats. A complete waste of time, youth sports are about having fun however, especially at that age.

*Huge house above Wasatch Blvd: $550000
*Import luxury vehicles: $100000
*Vacations & Luxuries $50000
*Remembering the value of giving your kids your time and energy instead of things and money: Priceless