If it's Tuesday, it must be Brownies, soccer and piano.
Dinner is rushed, often fast food eaten in the car as the kids are chauffeured to and fro.
The next night it might be Kumon math, T-ball, choir practice. Parents may feel stretched to exhaustion but they can, and do, argue that kids are better off at organized programs than watching TV, playing Nintendo, or engrossed for hours playing Pokemon on a Game Boy. In our desire to provide the best of everything, from schools to activities, we should be careful what messages we send our children, she adds. They may grow up believing that if they're not the best, they're failures. With after-school activities, there's no magic number that's right for everyone, contends Bowman, whose four children range from six to 16.