A bouldering class sounded like the perfect idea. As a former rock climber myself, what could be better than getting my adventure-loving daughter started early?
But then the class got pushed back into a more hectic territory for our schedule. As we tried to rearrange schedules and manage dinner and arrange transportation, I suddenly realized: it was more than ok for us to just drop it.
Here’s my highly scientific equation for why:
Stress of making activity happen > benefit of activity = CANCEL regret-free!
There’s already enough hustle in our lives just to keep things running smoothly.
Which is why extracurriculars are having to meet an increasingly stringent set of requirements at my house:
- kids must be able to walk or bike there (which means I don’t have to play my least favorite role of taxi, we get exercise, and we help our air quality. Win-win-win.)
- cannot compete with meal times (I’ve found that it’s way too slippery a slope for me to be like, yeah, fast food is fine just for now…)
- must have a compelling reason to take kids away from free play time (which is at least as valuable as the vast majority of extracurricular activities). See #BeTime video below:
Yes, the bouldering class would have been fun. Yes, we probably could have made the schedule conflicts work for a while.
But life is made of all our decisions for today. I’d rather stop putting off when we’ll live exactly the way we want to, and start doing that right now. And that starts with eliminating any activity that doesn’t carry its weight. No regrets.
featured image: DeathToTheStockPhoto
These are excellent rules. They aren’t the exact rules that would work for my family, but I love the equation and your general philosophy on this. Thanks!
Thanks, Jen! I’m sure that list will look different for everyone! It felt good for be to write down exactly what’s important for me and my family!