There’s a saying that goes, “I love to watch the seasons change.”

I’ve seen it on t-shirts with a football, baseball, basketball and hockey puck.

As a sports fan, it’s great to segue from one season into another, but it’s also cool when there’s a bit of an overlap.

When it comes to youth sports, however, you can make the argument that overlap is not a good thing.

In our house, we like to take things one sport at a time. Once August rolls around, my son Bradley’s attention is focused squarely on football and it stays that way right through the end of the season in November. The same applies when he plays baseball from March to June and street hockey in July.

I’m not sure how you can ask a child, whether he or she is 8, 9, 10 or even 11 years old like Bradley, to be focused on two sports at one time—to make it to practices and games for both teams, do homework, and also have a life away from school or the field.

Now it can work for kids who are younger, like my 6-year-old Jared, who is about to play little league one day a week and on Saturdays as well as soccer on Sundays. When you get a little older, things change.

They start to keep score. Your team is in a league with standings. The practices get a little longer, and the whole perspective of playing sports, especially football, changes. The intensity goes up and, whether it’s right or wrong, the pressure builds.

How can you expect a child to focus on everything there is when it comes to football and then add another sport onto his or her plate?

You really shouldn’t because something is going suffer, whether it’s football or the other sport.

A few years ago, Bradley was at football practice when the team mom came around to all the parents on the sidelines to remind them about the game that weekend. It was an away game so she wanted to make sure everyone had the right directions and reminded everyone that the kids needed to be at the field an hour before the game for warmups and weigh-ins. I don’t remember what time it was she said to be there, but let’s just say it was a noon arrival for a 1 p.m. game.

As she’s talking to everyone, I saw a parent checking his cell phone. After the team mom was done talking, the father of one of Bradley’s teammates went up to her and asked the following question:

“My son has a soccer game at the same time as the football game so do you think we can move the football game to another time?”

Say what? Are you kidding me?

This is an example of what can happen when you play two sports at once. Inevitably, there are going to be conflicts and that’s not fair to either team because a child is going to miss something.

There have also been instances with Bradley’s team when kids have missed parts of training camp or practices for lacrosse tournaments and wrestling matches.

Aside from conflicts, there’s also something to be said about wear and tear on a child’s body. There’s only so much that a kid can handle and some kids can handle more than others.

A child playing multiple sports at the same time can also be a strain on the parents. My wife Sheryl and I have a hard enough time juggling schedules to have our sons play one sport at a time. Anything more than that could lead to conflicts and unnecessary headaches.

This fall, Bradley will be starting his eighth season of youth football and Jared is going to play his first season of flag football.  They will each have enough to focus on without needing another sport to worry about.

Sports are supposed to be fun for a kid. Too much of them in one season could change that in a hurry.

Peter Schwartz is an anchor for the CBS Sports Radio Network and WCBS 880 Radio in New York.  You can follow him on Twitter @pschwartzcbsfan. Peter’s son Bradley plays for the Levittown Red Devils of the Nassau Suffolk Football League on Long Island in New York. His son Jared cheers on Bradley and then Bradley returns the favor when Jared is playing soccer.