Many adults have some experience living life without downtime: parents raising children, working professionals in particularly demanding careers, etc. If you’ve done (or are doing) it, you know how exhausting and even demoralizing it can be when you just can’t find an hour to relax and recharge, whether that’s catching up with friends, reading a good book, or rediscovering your favorite hobby.

But those challenges are no longer an adults-only problem, as many teenagers are living over-scheduled lives with no downtime. And according to Dennis Pope from Challenge Success and Sandra Russ, a professor of psychology science, this lack of “playtime” is hurting our kids’ development, as they discuss in this short podcast.

I realize this is not a concern for all parents—some might legitimately be thinking, “My kid has more downtime than anyone I know—I wish he’d have less by working a little harder.”

But if your student is one who is pretty much on from the time they wake until the time they go to sleep, if they’re constantly jumping from one assignment or commitment to the next with no time to just be kids, please take 10 minutes to listen to this talk. Over-scheduled kids didn’t get that way by parental pushing alone, or at all in some houses. There are lots of factors that have contributed to the frenzy.

But given that parents do retain some control over what’s valued, discussed, and encouraged at home, over-scheduled kids might really benefit from a parent who reminds or even requires them to regularly set schedules aside and embrace some downtime in the name of mental and physical health.