Psychology Today reports that this has inspired towns and cities across the country to support extracurricular activities. Businesses and private organizations pitch in to buy uniforms, equipment, to sponsor teams.

Children Today reports that extracurricular activities are a valid alternative to TV, cable and Internet games, but not to the absolute exclusion of those because of the educational opportunities.

Again, it is about balance.

“Endangered Minds” author Jane Healy told the magazine: “Television anesthetizes our higher brain function and disrupts the balance and interaction between the left and right hemispheres.”

Pediatrician Susan Johnson wrote in a paper to the Waldorf School of San Francisco that her own son became unresponsive when he was glued to the television set and instead of creating his own play themes, he simply re-enacted what he had just seen on TV.

However, Alvin Rosenfeld, a chid psychiatrist and author of “The Over-Scheduled Child: Avoid the Hyper-Parenting Trap,” believes that, “Overscheduling our children is not only a widespread phenomenon, it’s how we parent today.”

Rosenfeld said, “Parents feel remiss that they’re not being good parents if their kids aren’t in all kinds of activities.

Andre Brooks, author of Children of Fast-Track Parents, said “Middle-class children in America are so overscheduled that they have almost no ‘nothing time.”

Melanie Coughlin, a licensed marriage and family therapist and professor, said, “Parents think their kids will grow up and remember all the wonderful activities they were involved in. She thinks children “will remember how exhausted they were and how their parents were constantly yelling at them to hurry up and get ready for the next activity.”

WebMD Medical News reports that a truly demanding pace is detrimental and that children need time for themselves and time with their family.

Eric Small, a pediatric sports medicine specialist, reports: “Youth sports leagues have replaced the backyard pickup game, so kids have much less time to just hang out and relax.

A clinical professor of pediatric psychiatry at George Washington University of Medicine, Stanley Greenspan, said, “Children of all ages want to spend more time with their parents. We’ve lost faith in family as a means to provide kids with what they need. And we’re scheduling activities so tightly that there’s not room for playful exchanges with parents, siblings and peers.”

To assure a healthy balance, Greenspan, the author of Building Healthy Minds, suggests:

• Make sure family comes before everything else.

• Allow time for interaction with friends.

• Schedule activities with the time that remains

• Preserve the dinner hour.

• Limiting each child to one sport per season, plus one other activity.

• Taking a break like a summer week or two from outside activities.

• Homework first, before extracurricular activities

• Children learn to gather their equipment and other needs.

• The family always eats together.

Parents need to relax. Slow down. Activities are fine, but don’t go over the top. Research says that what children need most are relationships, not activities.

Alven Rosenfeld, the leading expert on overscheduled children told the magazine, said parents should, “Focus on building meaningful relationships with your children, not becoming their chauffeure.

• Bergstron does not encourage allowing children to drop in and out of activities. Once they have made a commitment, they should stick with it. Allowing a child to quit teaches them this is permitted later in life.

• Dr. Walter Meeker, a pediatrician in Michigan, said “Kids play is kids play. When you emphasize performance instead of play, it is not beneficial.”