What’s New
A grass-roots initiative of parents collectively reclaiming Sunday as a sports-free day.
Schedule balance into your week by reclaiming Sunday as family day.
Balance4Success at University of Minnesota
A group of students at the U of M adapts Balance4Success for college life. 
Talk About Balance
Ask a question. Tell us what you think. Give us your story.
*All form fields are required.
Family Mealtime
Countless studies show that regular family mealtimes are more critical for kids’ development than any extracurricular activities.
Youth Sports
Organized sports provide many developmental benefits-and lots of fun. But with play time overwhelming many kids' and family's lives, pediatricians and mental health professionals and youth sports leaders and educators are increasingly concerned that excessive involvement in organized sports can be detrimental to kids' well being in many ways.
Media » Articles
Let's keep Sundays free from youth sports
From ThisWeek Newspaper October 6, 2005; reprinted in the Forest Lake Times October 12, 2005
By Don Heinzman
Many are watching a group of parents in northern Dakota County who want to have their Sundays free of youth sports practices and games. This is part of a bigger problem of over scheduling kids that has child development authorities concerned.
Last week parents from Rosemount, Apple Valley and Eagan learned the consequences of insisting that their young children be involved in sports early. Pediatricians in the community are alarmed over seeing kids stressed and depressed early. Doctors are seeing more injuries, head aches and stomach aches in younger kids.
Balance4Success is a group of parents engaging their community and families to replace busyness with balance to ensure kids success. Their main thrust is to take back Sundays from the youth sports schedulers, so the kids and the family can have a day of rest, perhaps go to church and have a "family" day.
Involved in this over scheduling are the questions of when to start kids in sports and how early traveling teams of the more talented athletes should be organized.
A few parents and coaches convinced of the value of starting kids in sports early are controlling the scheduling, parents say. Youth sports leaders say they are trying to avoid scheduling games on Sundays but, enough gyms, rinks and fields aren't available weekdays.
They also hear from parents who want more games for their kids. Their response to parents is don't sign the kids up if they want their Sundays for other things. That's easier said than done for some parents who believe their kids have to be involved early in the system to get a chance to play later.
Some volunteer coaches are convinced that most parents want their kids to play sports and having practices and games is part of it. Most coaches when questioned agree that having Sunday off is a good idea and that more is not necessarily better.
The Minnesota State High School League, for example, mandates one day off and that's Sunday. The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics forbids games and practices on Sunday. The Minnesota Association of Elementary Principals agrees a child should be involved in only one activity per season. As for specializing in sports too soon, the American Academy of Pediatricians says specializing should not begin before adolescence.
Parents who have a vision of their kids getting college scholarships should realize that only 2 percent get them and less than 1 percent make it in professional athletics.
This is not a criticism of adult volunteers who make sports competition at young ages possible.
What parents are coming to believe is that six days of their week should be ample to schedule their youngsters. One day should belong to them to schedule without having to deal with sports games and practices.
Youth sports leaders should bend and try not to schedule games on Sundays, or the day may come when there won't be enough kids playing Sundays.