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
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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.
Press Releases
Parents Take Back Sunday From Youth Sports
Parents in middle class suburbs south of Minneapolis/St. Paul are uniting to liberate their kids' from out-of-control sports schedules. Balance4Success, a grass-roots organization, wants to change the culture of hyper-competitive childhoods by "replacing busyness with balance."
Read More...Are kids overbooked?
Some Minnesota parents are leading a drive to boycott kids' athletics on Sundays. Theirs is believed to be the first parent-led boycott of this type. Are today's children overscheduled? And what is the problem with having busy kids?
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Andrea Grazzini Walstrom
DATE: October 3, 2005 612-868-0088
Parents Take Back Sunday From Youth Sports
What: |
Parents in middle class suburbs south of Minneapolis/St. Paul are uniting to liberate their kids' from out-of-control sports schedules. Balance4Success, a grass-roots organization, wants to change the culture of hyper-competitive childhoods by "replacing busyness with balance." The group will launch its bold initiative, "Taking Back Sundays," at a community meeting and presentation featuring popular author and family life expert William J. Doherty PhD. It is the nation's first organized boycott of youth sports. The group will share the statistics and Doherty will the describe the sobering consequences of overscheduled childhoods. Parents will sign pledges committing that their kids will not participate in organized youth sports on Sundays. |
Why: |
Children have lost nearly one full waking day of free time in the past two decades. High school students rank "not having enough time with parents" as a top concern. Over-busy extracurricular schedules get in the way of family meals, holidays, celebrations and vacations, religious participation -- and important rest and unstructured time. Younger kids are spending more time passively watching older siblings' activities. Overscheduled kids are experiencing more stress, anxiety and depression. Youth athletes are experiencing early overuse injuries from excessive sports participation. Parents' already stressful lives are stretched to the limit by the intensity of their kids' schedules. |
| When: | October 4, 2005 |
| Who: | Middle class parents, local community leaders, William J. Doherty |
| Visuals: | Shots of the Doherty presentation in middle school auditorium |
| Story Angles: | Cover the Take Back Sundays launch, capturing parentsﾁf perspectives from excitement to anxiety. Shadow a family deciding to join the initiative as they talk to their kids, coaches and other parents' and navigate how to spend their newly-free Sundays. Profile Doherty and his mission to solve the problem of overscheduled kids and underconnected families. |
Balance4Success is a group of parents engaging their community and families to replace busyness with balance to ensure kids’ success. The group’s initiatives are based on research on child development and interviews with local parents, educators, medical, public health and safety and faith leaders in the award-winning District 196, the fourth largest school district in Minnesota, located in the south suburbs of Minneapolis/St. Paul.
William J. Doherty PhD is the leading national expert on overscheduled kids and underconnected families. Doherty is a professor at the School of Social Science of the University of Minnesota and author of Putting Families First and Take Back Your Kids Doherty has made appearances on The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show, NBC News and ABC News. He has also been quoted in articles published by USA Today, Time, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal.
For the past five years, Minnesota has been the national leader in the movement to counteract the overscheduling of children. Parent-led initiatives have developed in Wayzata, Eden Prairie, Southwest Minneapolis, and now Dakota Country in Independent School District 196.
Parents Taking Back Kids' Time: From Talk to Action
Contact: Andrea Grazzini Walstrom
612-868-0088
Apple Valley, MN August 24, 2005: A group of parents in the southern suburbs have had enough of their kids' packed activities schedules. Their grass-roots organization, called Balance4Success, wants to change the culture of hyper-competitive childhoods by "replacing busy-ness with balance." While some people think that the situation cannot change, the parents involved in Balance4Success believe a bold new initiative they are developing will finally give parents the tools they need to take back their kids' time.
The group has developed the initiative using research on child development and surveys with other local parents. It will be announced at a Community Discussion and Presentation on October 4, 2005 at Falcon Ridge Middle School in Apple Valley, facilitated by popular speaker and University of Minnesota professor William J. Doherty PhD.
Doherty has been meeting with the group to help develop an initiative that goes beyond those offered by other communities. "It's time to do more than just talk about this serious problem," says Doherty. "There is a silent-majority of parents who are frankly worn out by this frenetic pace, and are concerned for their children's well-being."
"We want our children involved for all the good things we know these activities can provide," says Andrea Grazzini Walstrom, a Balance4Success leader who has a child in Independent School District 196, where the group is focused. "But not at the level that is being imposed by a small majority of super-competitive activities leaders. We don't think excessive participation is good for kids." Many families in the middle-class communities of District 196 are so busy they barely have time for regular meals together. Over-busy extracurricular schedules, many packed with sports activities, get in the way of holidays, family celebrations, rest and unstructured time and participation in religious activities.
Intense, "activities-first" attitudes can have a cost. In a poll, high school students ranked "not having enough time with parents" as a top concern. Pediatricians are seeing over-use injuries suffered by ever-younger athletes. Nearly half of all parents say having their children overscheduled makes parenting more difficult. Overscheduled kids can experience stress, anxiety and depression. Colleges complain that incoming freshmen are burnt-out.
Minnesota is a national leader in the "family first" movement which addresses the problem of overscheduled children. Since Doherty and Barbara J. Carlson started the first Putting Family First group in Wayzata in 2000, similar groups have mobilized in South Minneapolis and Eden Prairie and conversations are underway in Carver County and other Minnesota communities. Doherty and Carlson co-authored a popular book by the same name, Putting Families First.
Balance4Success is a group of parents engaging their community and families to replace busyness with balance to ensure kids' success. The group's initiatives are based on research on child development and interviews with local parents, educators, medical, public health and safety and faith leaders in District 196.