Originally published July 13, 2014

Cost-benefit analysis.

 This is a method used in business practice that speculatively determines the strengths and weaknesses, the pros and cons of a decision.  It's method of assessment.

I believe that much of the epidemic of our busy lifestyle is that we don't CHOOSE.  We don't DECIDE.  We don't stop to assess whether, on a family macroeconomic scale of things, the collective commitments we have as a family will affect the overall functioning of our lives.  There is a tendency to assume that because something available to us is a good, that it must be good to do it.

Summer time is a great time to "take stock" of the needs of your family and actually decide how much activity is good for you as individuals and as a family.  It's important to remember that something that is objectively good (like team sports for learning life skills and for fitness) may not be good for your family, you or your child at this time.  It's not burdensome.  Some discussion as a couple or as a family, and some thinking...is this thing going to benefit our family.  Are these things all together, the Many Things, going to benefit us as a family.

Sometimes it is as simple as removing one activity from your life to move from frantic to composed.
There is a great quote from from Charles Dickens David Copperfield, that identifies the narrow margin that can mean the difference between joy and frustration:

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result: happiness.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result: misery."

Taking stock can simply mean giving some thought and consideration to what's on your plate.  How many days do you need at home to keep the household running without chaos?  What are the non-negotiable parts of your life?  What activities are optional?

The question we need to ask ourselves, prior to committing to anything is this:  Is the collective activity of our family in general adding to the quality of our family life, or detracting from it?

Everything has a season.  Determining that something isn't good for your family or you personally at this time doesn't mean that it never will be.  The state of the family is in constant flux.  What seems a burden or a problem at one stage, can, six months later, not even exist.  It can seem like when we are in the middle of something, a phase or stage of life, that is has always been that way and it always will be.  

Remember the seasons.