Susanne Tso
azcentral.com

School is back in session and life is back to normal. That is, if normal consists of 16- to 18-hour days packed with schoolwork, homework, after-school jobs, sports practices and driving to and fro.


Except for the driving, the power-packed days belong to my teenagers and their like-minded high-school friends who somehow manage to balance the hefty demands of their lives. But I’m exhausted just watching.

Forget the eight hours of sleep that are supposed to rejuvenate them, help them think better and boost their immune systems so they can fend off nasty bugs spewed by other sleep-deprived students.
They rarely get the ZZZs they need. At least not during the week. Not during the school year. Maybe that’s why they sleep the better part of the days away during summer, so their bodies can store up energy for the year ahead.

My kids are hardly alone. Miranda Doller, a sophomore honor student at Desert Vista High, spends four hours a day at gymnastics practice after school and still keeps up her grades. She begins working on homework about 9:30 p.m. after returning from practice, eating and showering. She’s learned to manage her grueling schedule but it often comes at the expense of sleep.

“One time I worked on a project until 4 a.m.,” she confesses, but normally she says she finishes by 1 a.m.

My 15-year-old daughter, also an athlete and honor student, and her friends frequently spend much of their weekends studying for tests, writing essays in English and Spanish, and attacking math and chemistry assignments.

At their age, I would have balked at such a load but our kids know they must put in the time to be academically competitive. More important, they’ve learned critical time management skills in the process.

Ashley Dreas, 17, is a senior at Mountain Pointe High and a member of the school’s badminton team. Besides spending about 15 hours a week in badminton practice and competitions, she is working to earn all A’s on her report card this year.

“Right now I’m a little stressed,” she says. “I’m taking AP psychology, which takes about four hours a week outside of class. I’m up until 11 p.m. or midnight every night trying to get homework done.”

But Ashley, Miranda and others like them are focused and goal-oriented. I suspect they could teach us parents a thing or two about time management.

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