This year, I’ve gotten more insistent to my students who are involved in multiple extracurriculars: I ask me to send them their sports or other schedule and a plan for equitable balance.
The secret is, I often can and do look at their schedules myself. (They’re all online!) But I am fairly certain that students don’t really look at, or think about, their schedules until the day of an event. At which point, they are scrambling because they haven’t made the proper advanced communication and planning. I have found that ofte, my precious little a cappella ensemble gets the short end of the stick in those situations.
Having a plan, thinking about it well in advance, and communicating with all interested parties: these are important skills, underdeveloped in a snowplow-parent culture. Any chance I get to empower my students to develop those skills is a blessing.