by Kim Perrone

Have you seen Speed, the film starring Sandra Bullock? Bullock plays a woman who must keep a bus cruising at no less than 50 mph or else the bus will explode.

Look at your calendar: is your family cruising along non-stop for fear of … of … seriously, moms and dads – what are we afraid will happen if we pare down our schedules and slow down? Unless you’re auditioning for Speed: The Remake, look around to determine whether you’re leaving sanity and family time in the dust!

Family Matters
Joanne Kraft, author of Just Too Busy: Taking your Family on a Radical Sabbatical (Beacon Hill Press) got to a point where family life was chaos and no longer made sense. Her book is a thought-provoking analysis of her solution: for one year, this mom cut all activities outside of school from the family schedule. No sports, no music lessons … nothing.

Sound extreme? Perhaps, and the adjustment wasn’t easy for Kraft’s children at first. However, apart from gaining new perspectives, her family learned an important lesson. Kraft writes, “When we kept our children out of their favourite activities for a whole year we were saying to them, ‘your wants don’t come first. Our family comes first.’ ”

In addition to warding off a sense of entitlement in their children, the Krafts experienced many day trips and activities as a family they wouldn’t have had time or energy for in the past.
What can you remove from your family’s calendar?

Happy Medium
No doubt, extracurriculars add value to childhood. So where is the line between healthy activity and chaos? Various parenting experts tell you to shoot for a balance between activities, free time, and family time. Others suggest the amount of activities according to age.

Perhaps the answer is as simple as thinking of a volume knob. Turn up the music too loud and you want to head for cover. Dial it back to a happy medium and the music is enjoyable.Control the volume by giving up one stressor of questionable value at a time, then stop when your schedule works. When choosing activities to axe, ask your daughter if cheerleading or playing flute is more important to her? Cut second place.

As well, insist on some family dinners per week. Hold a weekly family night and enjoy a movie, play games, talk, or paint a mural on the inside of the garage! Among the benefits of such nights, Kraft brings up the most important: “What we teach our children to honour now is very likely what they will honour as adults.”

Fresh Air
Embrace free weekends as a family, and commit acts of leisure such as hiking and biking.
Canadians have an amazing outlet for catching their breath from the everyday grind: the Trans Canada Trail. Approximately 73 percent complete, the TCT connects locally managed trails, is over 16,500 km long, and runs through or around 1,000 communities.

Plus, over 80 percent of Canadians are within a half hour of hitting the trail. Are you familiar with the locations near your town? Visit albertatrailnet.com to find out more.

Time For God
When life is overwhelming, it’s easy to say, “Enough is enough.” Doing something to draw the line might be another story. Cutting back takes a lot of willpower, and if you have trouble finding it, you might want to borrow strength from God. Kraft asks readers: “Have you talked to Him lately? Is He your first step and first response when life gets harried and priorities get skewed?”

It seems the way to balance today’s schedules is by asking yourself questions to find what works and doesn’t for your family. The key is to actively do so.Start here: what could your family do
together if you weren’t running around like Sandra Bullock?

For more Family Focus articles, visit our Archives!

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