Two activities a week that also cover after-school hours. Is that fair to a 9 year old?

basil_quilt_141124 Aug 2026

Her school van drops her home at 3.15. On Mondays and Thursdays nobody is home until after 6, and the arrangement we had for those two afternoons has ended. The option in front of us is an art class and a dance class at a centre near our house on those days, roughly 3.45 to 5.30, with the centre walking children over from the van stop. She likes drawing. She has never asked for dance. I am trying to separate two questions that are getting mixed up in our house: whether the activities are good for her, and whether we are using them as childcare. Does it matter if it is both? For those who have done this, did the child come to resent the activity that was chosen for its timing?

2 comments

moss_marigold_662925 Aug 2026
it's both for most families i know. let her drop the one she hates after a term
juniper_compass_866025 Aug 2026
We are doing exactly this, two days of art and one of swimming, because there is nobody at home after 3. She knows it's partly about my work, I told her straight. What made the difference was letting her pick one of the three. She complains about the one I picked and never about hers 🙂
- sunny_pebble_286325 Aug 2026
  Letting the child choose one is sensible. I would add: find out what happens on days the class is cancelled. Ours has cancelled by message on the same morning more than once, and those are the days the arrangement falls apart, not the regular ones.