05/28/2026
Summer can be a wonderful time for kids to explore sports, camps, lessons, and other extracurricular activities, but more isn’t always better.
Activities can build confidence, friendships, structure, and emotional resilience. But when schedules become too packed, kids can also experience stress, burnout, anxiety, irritability, and difficulty resting. As mental health providers, we encourage families to pay attention to the balance between engagement and downtime this summer.
Rest, free play, family connection, and boredom all matter too. Sometimes the healthiest thing for a child’s nervous system is having space to simply be a kid.
