Parent Driven Development
Episode 034: Back to School and Extracurricular Activities for Kids
00:59 Welcome, Barrett Clark
Barrett Clark is a data programmer, speaker and author of Data Visualization ToolKit. He is a longtime member of the Ruby community and a co-organizer of RailCamp South. Married for 22 years, Barrett and his wife have two teenage boys and a new dog.
Ruby community
Family: 2 highschool teenage sons (senior / sophomore) both in band.
Parent advisors and past president to children’s band team
01:46 Extra curricular activities for kids
- Barrett’s son involved with band
- The parents get involved as well, to have the kids know that you value them and their interest
- carpools with fellow parents
08:25 Extra cirrculars taking up more time than school and work. How to deal?
- Helping kids see the importance of prioritizing (school, dating, work, band, etc)
12:20 Helping kids find their “thing” + Overly committing kids to activities to help them find a passion
- Signing your kids up for more activities
- Kids getting wiped out from over activity
- Teaching kids the importance of community at a young age
15:15 Help kids find their community
- Friends of similar interests and ideals
- Creating deeper bonds
- Certain activities lend towards a larger community than others. gymnastic - girls range from 12-18, while sports often limit to one age group
17:13 Becoming a part of your kids activities
- More time with your children
- Build your own community amongst the other parents involved with your kids
- Flexibility in being involved “part-time”
20:51 Uninvolved parents vs. involved parents
- Single parents
- Younger kids in school
- Parents helping each other get their kids to activities
- Making sure other kids have support if their parents aren’t there or too busy
25:45 Ways to keep busy parents in the loop: build greater community
- Film concerts, games, etc for distant family members or busy parents to help keep them involved
- Building the community feel past just teammates and classmates
27:28 Discussing the organization of extra cirrculars before getting involved
- Sit down and discuss with your child. what’s important to you most? will you have time for all these sports and clubs?
- Ask about the history of the organization and decipher if it’s the right fit for you and your child
30:02 How to deal with “that parent” + learning to manage other parents in your kids activities
- Don’t yell at refs
- Overly involved parent envy
32:14 The financial side
- Fundraisers - parents typically have to get involved as well
- Writing a check vs. spending the time on fundraisers
- Kids take responsibility (older kids)
- Parents budgeting for future extracurriculars for kids
- Non-negotiable extracurriculars for kids - kids choice vs. have-to’s
- Budgeted financial support for activity or sport
42:35 Genius / fail moments
- The volleyball team offers a weekend trial for students to try without commitment. #genius
- New favorite child when they take on your same activity
- Barrett plays catch up with son’s college applications - the struggles motivating your child and parent strategy #geniusfail
- Middle school back to school night, too many teachers and no quality time #failmoment
- Allison’s son on a mission to find Sukana bread… except she doesn’t know what it is #fail
- Kwu’s son’s first haircut goes awry #fail So Kwu stepped up, orders tools and cuts his hair at home now #genius
Follow & Support
Please follow us @parentdrivendev on Twitter or email us at panel@parentdrivendevelopment.com.
Our website is at ParentDrivenDevelopment.com.
Support us via Patreon and get access to our our Slack Community.
Panel
KWu
Chris Sexton
JC Avena
Allison McMillan
Josh Puetz
Special Guest: Barrett Clark.
