Email
PrintADD — Too many Activities Done Daily?
The impact of over scheduling.
In Chicago last summer, I caught up with a couple of friends. Our first minutes of frenzied conversation were typically scattershot: Yeah, the flight was fine. You talked to anyone else lately? Do your kids play sports? Are they good at math? Do they listen to Lady Gaga or Wilco? And so on. The mood was light.
Then one of my buddies suddenly interjects that he thinks he’s been exhibiting the signs of ADD (attention deficit disorder). Of course, he being one of my oldest friends, I responded in the manner that seemed most appropriate to the moment: by mocking him. Uh huh, I said, that’s what every other adult I know tells me these days.
He laughed; we moved along. And maybe he really does have some issues related to concentration and focus; either way, he’s smart, well-educated, comes from a family of doctors and seeks medical attention readily. If anyone’s going to be fine, he is. Do not worry.
What stuck with me, however, is how my obnoxious, tossed-off comment seems, in retrospect, to have a ring of truth to it. As we, my wife and I, work to ensure that we are properly addressing all the specific traits and needs of our own children, it has become commonplace for friends, acquaintances and family to offer, in not very conspiratorial ways, that they, too, suffer from this or that, or could use techniques or guidance to help them “stay on track.”
It doesn’t take a genius to conclude that many, and perhaps the majority, of the people we know feel that, at least in some measure, they lack focus. They are easily distracted. They tend to drift. Their minds wander.
Of course, this is all anecdotal evidence, but this is all I could think about back in early August, as we began the process of piecing together our kids’ fall schedules. As a small sample, consider the effort required to schedule piano. For our daughter, it begins on Wednesday. No, wait, it can’t be on Wednesdays because Hebrew school is Wednesdays. Move to Mondays? No, ballet is Mondays and Saturdays. We’ll get back to piano. Let’s move on to tennis; when is tennis? Oh, also Mondays and Wednesdays. Can we double-stack Mondays: ballet and tennis? Sure, why not; we’ll try. Great. Perfect.
That’s everything. Wait … piano?
And it all starts again. And that’s just for one kid.
Even as I write this, I find myself growing slightly sick to my stomach. The truth is, I need unscheduled time for myself. I can go without it for a day, a week, even a month or two, but after a while, I need to not be busy. This might be time for research, for writing or even, I’m not embarrassed to admit, time spent goofing off, playing.
If that’s the case, then when do our children get unscheduled time? I look at their schedules and cringe. I don’t know if this will produce attention deficit disorder, but it certainly seems as though it will produce attention overload. And as I look at the list, nothing jumps off the page as utterly unnecessary. Tennis? American kids are overweight. We need more exercise. Piano? Helps with learning and math skills. Ballet? Balance and expression. Hebrew school? The deepening of one’s cultural heritage.
There is no obvious redundancy. But I can’t help but think there is some weird correlation between these schedules and the large number of adults who think they are experiencing ADD.
Is this sudden self-diagnosed lack of attention a result of adults’ schedules being too busy or the crazy-quilt nature of their kids’ schedules?
What is the answer? It must be consolidation, but how? I remember once overhearing a conversation between a couple of colleagues who had grown up in Pittsburgh in the 1950s. With unbridled enthusiasm, they found themselves trading stories about a community center located in the neighborhood where they grew up. They went there for everything: athletics, art, music, a library, even writing classes. These two guys from the same neighborhood? One grew up to become a conductor, the other a writer.
It’s wonderful that so many dedicated people have stepped forward to fill the roles of music teacher, coach and instructor, but I can’t help but think that the ad hoc nature of these support systems leads to overworked kids, existing without benefit of unscheduled activity. I fear it also leads to parents who may feel as though they sometimes simply don’t know where they’re supposed to be or worse, remember what they’re supposed to be doing.
