I wanted to get a survey of gifted parenting styles. My parenting style with my 2 children is to provide them with as many extracurricular activities that interest them. Even if it means driving all over town, having a packed schedule, eating in the car, changing uniforms in the car, etc. I am guilty of not giving my kids enough unstructured downtime. Partly this stems from my own upbringing where I didn't have the opportunity to be involved in many activities, because we were struggling financially. And partly because I am a competitive person by nature, so I want to see my kids be good or at least exposed to many different things.
Speaking with other parents, I see a vast difference in parenting styles. Some parents are much worse than I am. Kids are involved in multiple activities per day, where they are so over scheduled, I have a hard time believing a child can do so many activities. Then I have friends that are so relaxed with their kids. The kids are always outside riding bikes, completely care free. The reason I bring up this topic is because my kids usually just go along with the flow. But recently my son has been complaining about being stressed out and having too full of a schedule. I feel bad now for cramming in all these "fun" activities. All he wants to do is just go home now. Has anyone's kids ever experience this kind of burn out? I'm going through my schedule and cutting out all the extraneous activities and just having some downtime together as a family. At least for the rest of the summer.....
