Sunday Morning

A Day To Ponder Motherhood

By Ellen Crean

May 10, 2002 / 5:47 PM EDT / CBS

On Mother's Day, CBS News Sunday Morning's cover story focuses on "Time Out" for the family.

What with soccer, baseball, lacrosse, drama lessons, dance lessons, music lessons, homework, and play-dates, there is a growing feeling that today's parents are over-scheduling the lives of their children.

Psychiatrist Dr. Alvin Rosenfeld, who has written a book titled "The Over-Scheduled Child: Avoiding the Hyper-Parenting Trap," tells CBS News correspondent Peter Van Sant, "An over-scheduled child, an over-scheduled family…rushes from seven in the morning till ten at night, trying to fill every moment with enriching activities. There are children and families who don't have time to sit down, to relax, and just hang out….What's wrong with that is the kid has no time to roam. They have no time to invent a life of their own, to imagine. They're often exhausted."

CBS

Buy "The Over-Scheduled Child"

CBS News Sunday Morning brought together a group of Ridgewood, N.J., parents and their kids to talk about their over-scheduled lives. We chose Ridgewood because several weeks ago, in an effort to slow down just a bit and to give families one night with nothing to do but be together, the town scheduled – yes, scheduled – "Family Night." There was no homework, no sports, no nothing except time to be with your family. It made news from coast to coast and the idea seems to have struck a nerve among American families.

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