Do your children and teen's activities have you running every day ofthe week? With younger children you'll be responsible for taking themto scout meetings or to various practices. As they grow up and learn todrive, they can get back and forth on their own. But how do you decidewhich activities should stay and which should go?

Have your children been having problems completing their homeworkbecause they're not home? Are their grades failing because they're notdoing their schoolwork or are too tired to concentrate in class? If so,you may want to consider making some changes to your family's schedule.

Maybe you weren't able to participate in something you wanted to dowhen you were younger. This may have clouded your thinking to allowyour children to participate in too many extracurricular activities.Perhaps it's time to reduce the number of things you allow yourchildren to do.

You may want to take a serious look at the amount of time yourfamily spends away from home. Ask each person to write down on a pieceof paper all of the different things they do, when they meet, and howlong the meetings are. This might include sports, band, religiousactivities, scouting, volunteer obligations, and parent's businessmeetings.

After you've seen just how many activities each person is involvedin, you may see the need to reduce how much time each family memberspends away from home. Perhaps each person should be limited to oneactivity per season. Instead of allowing one person to participate in asport and band or choir, have them choose one or the other.

If your child or teen is an athlete, their team is depending uponthem to show up for practices and for each game. If they decide not tocontinue to play that sport after the season is over, that's okay.However, deciding to quit in the middle of the season would affect therest of the team. It would be better to let another activity go if theyare away from home too much.

When trying to decide how many after school activities are too many,don't forget to include your own activities. You may be too busy afterwork to enjoy time with your family. Your goal may be to allow thechildren, teens, and adults in your family to learn and enjoyactivities. However, you may learn that too many activities makes theparents busy chauffeurs and children tired.