Overscheduled vs. Bored

So Ryan and Adam both wanted to play soccer this fall. Ryan was particularly looking forward to it. I printed the registration forms for one league off the Internet back in August, but since it wasn't a city-sponsored league, I wanted to get to our neighborhood and check with other moms to see if their kids played in it before we signed up. So this weekend I finally figured out that it is the league that most kids around here play in. Unfortunately though, I waited too long, the league is halfway through the fall season, and they aren't accepting late registrations at this point. Ryan is so disappointed and I feel really bad.

I feel bad that Ryan's disappointed, but I also feel bad that it's my fault that my kids aren't involved in anything yet. I really don't want to be one of those parents who overschedules their kids with teams and lessons and classes, etc., etc. Doing just baseball in the spring for the last two years made our evening family schedule just crazy. I don't know how parents with more kids, or with kids involved in more activities, do it all.

On the other hand, I want my kids to have the opportunity to try different activities and have the experiences of playing on teams and learning to play musical instruments and all that good stuff. They were an important part of my childhood. And when my boys aren't involved in anything, they watch TV and play video games constantly, and still complain about being BORED. Aaaagh! How do I find a happy medium?! So now I'm thinking about signing them up for a karate class at the rec center....