JFF: Ridiculously Grueling High School Extra-curricular Schedules

Oh wow, I remember! I get 10 hours a night and I will NEVER sacrifice sleep. It's too painful. Even with 5 kids; we go to bed around the same time, though they usually get more than 10 hours (11-12). I sometimes clean for a while. Sleep is absolutely my priority for myself and my family.

In high school all I did was go to bed by 10 and get up at 6:30am. I was so tired I wanted to shrink back to bed. I had a sports practice 6 days a week after school. But all in all I did not skimp on sleep big time. I studied and never went out.

Now, as a mom, sleep is #1. I do not understand how some people can skimp. I get 10 hours a night to feel good all day. I NEED to in order to be a good mom and keep up. I go to bed with the kids or a bit later (to clean) and we wake for school, which starts a bit before 9.

For a bit in high school I'd stay up late to read, then one day I crashed real early and woke up feeling GREAT. I did not know what I'd been missing, and never again did I skimp on sleep.

Yep, that is how it is...my daughter leaves the house at 6:45 am and sometimes does not get home until 10:30 pm during play practice. Long days.

I can not begin to tell you. Do you know how competitive marching band is in Texas? MEGA. they practice more than the football team. In hotter temps.
3 a days in 104 degree heat. They went to State, proformed, slept a few hours, came back to school and went to classes then percussion had to practice till 9 that night for another contest then come home and do homework for a couple hours. Combine that grueling schedule with all AP classes and it's insanity.
My youngest is at Regionals right now till we pick him up about 9 then he has AP Physics due in by midnight. He wont eat supper till we pick him up, probably. He's had a peanut butter and jelly today. He knew how it was because he saw his bro do it too.
They never had time to get in trouble. They barely had time to eat!

LOL this is exactly why I couldn't wait for my kids to start driving!
Sure, I went to most of their stuff but it was nice to hand over the keys once in a while and say "good luck tonight, drive safe, I'm going to bed!"

As a mom of two teens, I can say this is pretty typical and 90% of the moms of high schoolers that I know do work. It's just what you need to do if you want to let your kids take part in these activities. We are all tired.

Wow. Well thanks for leaving me very little to complain about! :-)

We are new to the world of competitive sports, and I'm feeling so overwhelmed by it all. My husband is the coach so that adds a lot, too. The demands on our time and pocketbook are crazy. It's hard to make sure my daughter keeps school the priority, and I feel like I'm always losing that battle.

But... she doesn't have anything before school. After school and weekends, and plenty of travel on weekends. But 4 and 5:30? That would be my undoing. Good for you for doing all of that AND working! I never did sports growing up like that, but everyone that I know that did is very grateful to their parents for the support. Not instant gratification, but they will thank you someday! And very nice of you to worry about teachers and coaches instead of just focusing on your lack of sleep! Nice mama!

I think the whole question of these activities has to be looked at. We've had a number of car accidents and deaths due to young people being exhausted and driving to hockey practice at 4:30 AM. I think it's irresponsible of coaches to have the kids at an away game/meet until the wee hours and then have them at practice again the next morning.

Kids are chronically exhausted and it affects their decision-making. They also over-use those dangerous energy drinks with all the caffeine (5 Hour Energy, Monster, etc.) and there are a lot of hospital visits and deaths due to those.

And then there are the head injuries from contact sports....

So I think the whole issue needs to be assessed and a real hard look needs to be taken at what the REAL benefits are ("oh, it looks so good on the college applications") and what the hazards are.

My son was a competitive runner and sometimes meets ran late especially if they were at indoor tracks, which few schools had and which caused meets to be doubled and tripled to use the same space at the same time. So I understand where you're coming from. But frankly, we occasionally let him sleep late and go in to school late. It wasn't worth it to have him completely worn out.

Luckily for me, mine don't play sports. Luckily both daughters are involved in most of the same activities.

However, my daughters take an early morning class so she starts school at 7:00. Drama (the play) is a graded class for which she receives credit, most nights it only goes until 4:30. However, in Feb. they will go to 8:00 or 9:00 and Saturdays range from 4 to 8 hours. They even have to go to school during the Feb. vacation. In between, there's the 3 after school clubs she tries to fit in. Sunday evenings are girl scouts. Then they also have to fit in her field work for a college class she's taking (similar to community service) of 10 hours per semester (9weeks). That doesn't include the other community service. And my youngest on top of all this, belongs to a community band that practices 2 hours every Monday night.

Band season is another story and we're not competitive. There's 3 hour practices one night a week, the Friday night games not getting home until 9:30, and some Saturday practices perfomances that start at 10:00 am until 9:00 pm. Here's the best one, she was asked to volunteer at a band event which she did for 5 hours. The teacher decided to grade the students, she got an "F", because she didn't stay there all day 13 hours.

I encourage my girls to be involved and I think it's good for them to keep busy. Ultimately, it's their choice.

It's the parents who suffer the most during this time. As we get older we need more and more and more sleep just to recuperate from stress! I think seeing about trading off each week with some other parents that are driving anyway might be nice. Time to yourself in the evening and you can go to bed early.

Hope they all get hockey scholarships to college and end up playing for years!