Is my kids club schedule too intense

Regardless of what your inlaws think, its what you and your DD thinks is what counts here, so school have no concerns, your DD is happy which should take priority and your inlaws suddenly decide its too much. If your DD was tired or wanted to stop one of the activities she would tell you herself.......talk to her, ask her how she feels and if she's happy then continue as before.

Now regarding your inlaws, just acknowledge their concerns, your children's wellbeing is your top priority always and if she is happy to continue with her activities, there is every reason to continue with them for the time being.

Don't accept interference from others.

At that age mine were doing - piano, swimming, dance and brownies. They maybe had something on 4/5 days out of 7. None of them longer than an hour and all of them chosen by them. They loved every one and would have been sad to stop. They didn’t go if they were unwell, too tired, or had a one off event to go to like a party. They saw plenty of friends and family.
When added up it was about 5 hours a week. That’s not a lot really out of 168 hours in a week.

My DS is the same and it exhausts me but he point blank refuses to let anything drop. He's pushed for every class he does. Thankfully most are within walking distance of home so he's started getting himself to them.

Monday 6-7 jujutsu
Tuesday 4-4-30 saxaphone, 5.30-6 drums, 6-6.30 percussion ensemble
Wednesday 5-6 hiphop dance
Thursday 5-6.30 song writing and production
Friday 3-3.30 piano, 5-6 ice-dancing
Sunday 10-11 icedancing

Yes that sounds like a fun way to travel

If she’s enjoying it I don’t see the problem. I loved clubs as a child and my schedule was similar. It was my choice and I enjoyed it. I’m grateful that my parents allowed me to have so many opportunities. I wish I had the time now for so many hobbies.

Totally depends on the child: one of my kids would thrive on a schedule like this; the other would find it unbearable. Horses for courses 🤷‍♀️

I think this is ok if she wants to do it and if you can recognise if it's getting too much or she is comfortable enough to tell you.

My dd is nearly 11 and her hobbies used to be like this but over the last year she has slowly dropped quite a few and now only does horse riding and some school sports.

I guess as well it depends how much travel time is involved ? If there's lots of time in the car to get to all of them it's not so ideal

If she's happy then it's fine. My daughter has always done as much as she possibly can get me to agree to, my son is more of a home body and only likes to do a couple of things a week.

As long as she's asking to do them then it's ok.

How much piano practice is she doing? My kids are musical and I have deliberately not over scheduled them as I want them to have time to practice during the week (30 mins per day so it’s not loads).

Theres not much point learning the piano if you don’t practice it regularly - it’s also a very unsocial instrument (until you get seriously good). Most others you can play in an ensemble from fairly early on and learn lots of team and ensemble skills as well as having social opportunities.

Otherwise if she’s fitting everything in and enjoying it I don’t see a problem. All kids are different.

I think this schedule is brilliant and wish I had the funds to enable my DC to do more.
😊

I come from a country when you don't even start SCHOOL till the age of 6/7, I also did nothing at that age. We do what works for our children, but I have to say it feels odd to be one of the few parents who doesn't schedule every afternoon for their child. It is difficult to schedule playdates when my daughter's 6 year old friend has 1 afternoon a week free.

Its only about 8hrs of activities. There are 2-3 days with nothing. There is loads of free time.

DD did a lot of clubs before and after school. If she didn't she'd have been in the after school club anyway as we worked. At least this way she was getting in some exercise, which was good given that PE was very limited in her school (1session a week).

I also don't think clubs have to lead to anything other than enjoyment. DD has been doing an hour of ballet a week since she was 7 (6 years). She's never done grades, it's just for fun and is social. I exercise for fun too, don't see why it has to be competitive unless that's what a child wants.

It can be, but realistically with two working parents and the current attitudes towards kids playing outside many kids only get proper exercise at clubs.

For lots of kids the days of coming home from school and spending the next three hours playing out with friends are gone.

My DS is six and in Year 2. He does nothing. I want him to do swimming lessons, but beyond that, I'm happy for him to do nothing. It's his choice. He's autistic and struggles just with going to school every day.

I can't afford lots of clubs either. (Minus swimming if I can persuade him to do it).

If your DD is happy and it's her choice, then it's fine. If you were forcing her, then that's an entirely different matter, but if she genuinely wants to do them all - no problem.

It sounds like you are happy and you are best to judge.

All of us have to accept that time is limited and by choosing to do any one thing, we are also choosing not to do something else with the same time.

DD (8) best friend does about 8 hours a week of intense sport. The BF is very happy and energetic - she is missing out on some of bog standard play dates but for them the sports are more important (I don’t understand why, but it’s not my choice)

Sounds like it’s anything so u don’t have to spend time with yr child.

Exactly this.Also absolutely nothing wrong with saying No to an activity .

people wouldn’t be complaining if you put your kid in “afterschool club” til 5pm each day.
so I don’t think it’s a problem for her to do actual activities.
it’s nice to do pleasure activities too (horse riding and ice skating are just for fun)
I would think as a family it would be good to have Sundays free, to do day trips, big lunches, house work, down time. But if you aren’t grumbling about taking her to activities and your other child is happy and cared for what’s the issue?

things will change again once she’s in secondary school.

This was my DD. She's now Y10, homework has ramped up massively, she wants to see friends outside school. And still does all the activities! I'll not list them but it tots up to about 11 hours (currently 16 but only for a couple more weeks) of structured hobby activities.

She gets up early and does school work in the morning before school, and it helps that we live close to school and all her activities so there's not a lot of travel time. She keeps saying she will cut back, but then comes home and says she's signed up for xyz after school and oops, she's added something in. Her school work is still high standard, if that slipped she'd be making changes herself before we had to push her to it.

Plus side, she's got awesome organisational skills and focus when she needs to use them. Down side, she does get tired. She's learning to make choices!

Maybe a bit different for us as DS is an only child, but that doesn't look too different from his schedule. Age 11/Y6.

Monday his friend comes round after school, then he has a 30 minute 1-2-1 football training session.
Tuesday training for football team 1
Wednesday guitar lesson
Thursday training for football team 2
Saturday morning match for football team 1
Sunday morning match for football team 2

Like your DD he hasn't always done all of these things, and he's done other activities (swimming, climbing) at times.

My point of view is that he's getting out of the house, doing things he enjoys, is keeping active and mixing with different kids.