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Balance4Success project seeks to keep Sundays for family, not sports

By Maria Wiering
Catholic News Service

ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) — Seeking to restore balance to family life, a parents' group in Minnesota hopes to recapture Sunday as a day for families, not organized sports.

"Coaches are interested in scheduling as much play time as they possibly can," said Andrea Grazzini Walstrom, founder of the group called Balance4Success. "Sunday is just another day they can use to get kids out playing."

The Balance4Success initiative "Taking Back Sunday" seeks a boycott of sports practices, games and tournaments scheduled on Sundays, starting June 1.

"We're just trying to force the athletic system to think a little differently," said Terrie Pearson, a parishioner at Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville and the mother of three children. "It has gotten out of hand. They're just kids."

Sunday sports steal valuable time from the family, said Grazzini Walstrom, mother of two children. Although sports can bring "great benefits" for children, such as social skills and lessons in responsibility and leadership, "those aren't the only skills we want them to have. We want them to understand family connectivity," she said.

It is not just teenage sports that cause the conflict. Several programs offer sports for children as young as 2, and there is widespread pressure for children to compete as early as possible, University of Minnesota professor Bill Doherty said.

"If (parents) don't get their child in the game, (they fear) they'll lose out," Doherty said.

In the midst of their children's jam-packed schedules, families struggle to find time together. Doherty, who directs the university's marriage and family therapy program, calls this phenomenon "overscheduled kids and underconnected families," a problem he has been studying since 1999.

Parents involved in Balance4Success suspect that other parents want more family time but lack the courage or support to oppose the scheduling.

"It's hard to speak up — it seems like you're being selfish and denying your child an opportunity," Doherty said. "Parents have a hard time doing that if they think they're the only ones. We're trying to empower people to know that there are a lot of folks who are concerned."

Interviews with some 50 parents across the involvement spectrum confirmed those suspicions, according to Doherty.

While hoping to reach out to like-minded parents, Balance4Success is not directly trying to change any parent's mind.

"We're not really addressing the parents who think there's no problem," Doherty said. "If they think their kid is doing great being busy, if they think six days of hockey a week is great, then God love them."

A member of Risen Savior in Burnsville, Grazzini Walstrom is realistic about the boycott's consequences. While she hopes teams will stop holding games and practices on Sundays, she knows that some will ask the boycotting players to leave.

"We're going to support parents through that and their kids through that," she said.

Eagan (Minn.) Hockey Association coordinator Terry Everson said he understands the parents' concerns and agrees that children need a balance between family and sports. For hockey, the issue centers on available ice time. With several organizations competing for an open rink, coaches have to take any time that is offered. Sunday skating times from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. allow the hockey association to have reasonable playing hours during the week, Everson said.

Paul Caron, ice coordinator for the association, said that with 33 teams skating from the Eagan association as well as another association and high school teams sharing the arena weekend time is prime for practice and games.

"Taking away Sunday as an option to play hockey would put the associations in a pretty difficult position," he said.

A parishioner at St. Thomas Becket in Eagan, Caron said hockey is part of the family time he spends with his three boys. "I don't see a problem with balancing both (hockey and family time)," he said.

Families are not the only ones struggling to find time on Sundays amid sports schedules. Many churches are having difficulty scheduling youth events, Grazzini Walstrom said.

Churches "have to build faith formation around sports, and they think that's backward," she said. "They think that faith and family should come before sports. But, unfortunately, in our culture that is not what is happening."

Bonnie Serio, elementary faith formation coordinator at St. John Neumann in Eagan, said sports leagues conflict with youth activity scheduling all week long. "The travel leagues are killing us," she said.