Is soccer AND baseball too much at once for a 4yo?

CD+AL · March 2012

Our YMCA spring schedule just came out, and DS wants to play both soccer and baseball. Soccer is 45min on Tues evenings, and baseball is one hour on Thurs evenings plus a weekly practice.

On one hand, it seems like a lot given that this is his first organized sports activity, but on the other hand, I have a hard time getting him enough outdoor time/active time. Plus the scheduling seems to workout.

Thoughts?

Amy&Anthony · March 2012

I say, if you can take it then go for it; wear them out! they will sleep better and eat better in the long run....

shouldbworkin · March 2012

That would be too much for us. I would do soccer now and baseball later.

howleyshell · March 2012

We learned the hard way with our now 17 yr old that crossing over seasons often leads to burn out.

We've decided to only do 1 sport at a time with our little guys. We tried the other way and it just didn't work well for us or for him.

If he's got a real interest in both you may want to consider a team for one of them and a camp or work shop for the other.

We faced the same problem: They both wanted to do both soccer and baseball. Dylan also requests football every time the "what sport would you like to play" discussion happens but I think he's finally understanding that we will only do fall football (a few of his friends do spring too). We supplement his football passion with plenty of games of catch (and yes, tackle) in the yard or at the park.

Frankly? At this age there is a LOT of standing around in baseball. We went with soccer on a team and then DH and a couple of our kids' friends dads put down a couple of dates on the calendar where they can all just go out to a field and work 1:1 (or 1:2 in our case) with their sons on the fundamentals of catching and hitting. They'll get WAY more out of just 2 sessions with the dads than they will out of a whole "season" on a team at this age.

KL777 · March 2012

IMO, if he's in preschool then I think preschool, soccer, and baseball may be alot for a little one. Also, how would that blend with your schedule? I think us moms sometimes can over do it and wear ourselves out unecessarily. Just my two cents :-)

On the other hand, the above schedule may work out great for others. I guess you have the option to do a trial and error---see how it goes.

mavs_girl07 · March 2012

DD is also interested in a lot of things, but we only let her do one activity at a time. We don't want her overscheduled, and we really don't want ourselves overscheduled as a family. She did ballet, now she's about to begin Blastball for the spring. She also really wants to do tumbling, so we'll probably start that once Blastball is over.

KathrynMD · March 2012

I think that's too much organized activity for a kid that age and he's not really qualified to decide what is or isn't appropriate for him.

jlw2505 · March 2012

My rule with my kids up to this point has been that they can have activites outside of preschool/PreK 2 nights a week. For us, that is a 30 mins swim lesson once a week and then they have rotated between soccer, dance and gymnastics which was typically a 45-60 min class one night a week. Right now we are only doing swim lessons but my oldest takes a science class during school and my youngest takes a dance class during school. We have never done anything outside of swim lessons in the summer as I love having the freedom to do whatever we want after work and on the weekends. I am thinking that once my oldest starts kindergarten in the fall along with religious school on Sundays, we will just be doing swim lessons and then whatever after school things that they do such as girl scouts or just more play date type things but we shall see once the time comes. I just don't like being overscheduled especially in the summer.

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