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Introduction

Have you noticed how children today manage strict and fully packed schedules just like adults? While some may perceive it as giving more opportunities to children at a young age, there’s another angle to this scenario. We at Delhi Public School Sushant Lok, one of the best CBSE schools in Gurgaon, understand that whenever parents choose to enrol their kids for multiple activities throughout the day, the intention is to provide the kids with as much exposure as possible so that they excel in every area of their life. However, the fact is that such back-to-back activities negatively affect kids’ well-being in numerous ways. If you, too, have over-scheduled your kids’ routine, you must pause and read this full blog post. It covers how over-scheduling affects kids in ways that don’t show up immediately, making them easier to overlook.

Kids don’t get enough time to process the learnings

Constant stimulation slows memory and creativity

When kids jump from one activity to another, their minds barely get the required downtime to understand what they’ve learned. An over-scheduled routine puts children into a loop of constant stimulation that slows their learning and memory formation. Whether your kids study in the nursery or higher secondary grades, their brains require quiet moments to connect ideas, solve problems creatively, and develop a deeper understanding. Unfortunately, over-scheduling leaves no time for these crucial processing periods. If you don’t intervene and make timely routine adjustments, your kids will struggle to retain what they’ve learned, and it will also hamper the development of thinking skills in them. Their brains can become overstuffed cabinets where nothing can be found when needed. So, ensure you start removing unnecessary activities from their routine today.

Stress becomes their normal state

High alert mode hurts health and happiness

Rushing from one place to another to finish multiple scheduled activities may trigger the same stress hormones in children as real emergencies do. Their bodies release chemicals designed for life-threatening situations, but instead of facing a tiger, they’re facing another car ride to practice a musical instrument. When this becomes their daily life, the child’s brain steps into a constant alert mode, never getting enough time to rest and recover. This chronic stress builds over time and weakens their immune system, making them sick more often. It also affects their sleep patterns and makes their nervous system hypersensitive. When this happens, even the smallest disappointments feel overwhelming.

Hence, we at Delhi Public School Sushant Lok would like to advise parents to include fewer activities in their child’s routine. Always prioritise including sufficient unstructured free time in their schedule, which is intended solely for their recovery and leisure. This simple routine change can significantly improve their quality of life, shifting them from a state of constant stress to joy and excitement.

They lose the ability to self-direct

Excessive structure leads to dependency

Children with over-scheduled routines become excessively dependent on adults to tell them what to do every moment of their day. Instead of learning to manage their time and make their own choices, they start relying on external guidance for even the smallest matters. While it may look insignificant initially, it ends up grooming kids into dependent adults who cannot survive without external support. If you don’t want your kids to become adults struggling to make basic life decisions independently, ensure you give them age-appropriate liberty to design and manage their regular routines. If they want to remove any activity they feel is unimportant, let them proceed if it doesn’t hamper their academic or overall growth and development.

Performance anxiety replaces confidence

Pressure to excel in everything builds fear

Being ‘present’ for multiple activities often creates an unsaid pressure to excel everywhere, all the time. While seemingly harmless, it pushes children to believe their worth depends on constant achievement and meeting everyone’s expectations. It paves the way for anxiety, making them worried about trying new things because they may not immediately succeed. Your kids eventually start fearing coaches, teachers, and even you, and as a result, they begin to avoid challenges that could help them grow. Rather than developing genuine confidence from mastering skills at their own pace, they become anxious performers who are always worried about the next evaluation. This pressure creates perfectionist children who are afraid to make mistakes — the very mistakes that may lead to real learning and resilience building.

This clearly means that the confidence you, as a parent, initially hoped multiple activities would build in your kids gets replaced by anxiety about maintaining performance levels across too many areas.

Conclusion

While parents have good intentions when enrolling their kids into multiple activities throughout the day, it doesn’t always deliver the results they expect. We have come across many children who feel overtly exhausted and overwhelmed by their over-scheduled routines. It not only affects them mentally but also disrupts their physical and emotional well-being. Their academic performance starts taking a hit, too, due to their prolonged state of stress and performance anxiety. Their social life becomes almost non-existent. If you truly want your kids to thrive well in their lives, you should prioritise their rest and recovery as much as their academic and other growth-centred activities.

By means of this blog post today, we at Delhi Public School Sushant Lok, one of the top schools in Gurgaon, would like to urge all parents out there to kindly remove any unnecessary activities from their kids’ routines after school. We assure you that we at our school are already taking full care of the holistic development of each of our pupils. So, when the kids reach back home after school hours, allow them the necessary time to unwind and relax. Let them enjoy some unstructured time every day. You’ll be surprised by the visible improvements this small change brings into your children’s life.