> Even weekends are basically more studying and extra-curricular classes for my kids (ballet, phonics, mental math, painting) Do they enjoy doing all these thi

> Even weekends are basically more studying and extra-curricular classes for my kids (ballet, phonics, mental math, painting) Do they enjoy doing all these things? Thinking back to when I was a kid, I would rather have spent the time with friends, doing unplanned nothing special things. I wonder if they don't actually have a weekend, instead, they have "work-end"? What if both you and they would be happier, if you cancelled some of the extracurricular things. Maybe they find things themselves to do -- for example, as a kid I bought books about software, and taught myself. But if you've decided that they are to learn painting etc (which is fun too I think :-)) then, maybe there's not much time left for them to decide? Just some thoughts, what do I know. And I've made some guesses / assumptions about your situation, maybe they're incorrect Edit: now i see you've in a way partly replied here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30933886 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30933886