Parents Logistical stress (long)

[MILgymFAM]

How do you keep it from getting to you? The insane logistics of a two gymmie, one parent available family? My ODDs gym is new. Still doesn't have a building new. The entire time she's been there they have been renting space in another gym. This other gym is quite the commute for us (over double where the gym will eventually be), but reasoning it was temporary we went with it. My DD loves the gym. The coaches, the other girls, the family-like team atmosphere. All is well on the gymnastics front. Except.. The new building still isn't finished. We are going into the fall in the rented space.

Last season, when my DD joined, there was a homeschooling/elite group. This made the commute bearable and removed any conflict with my YDDs evening practices. The gym has since decided to drop the homeschooling group and have only two groups- the evening group and a morning elite group. In this case, the elite group means elite. Those girls training hopes. That's only two girls at this point, I believe, and obviously my DD isn't one of them. When the HC made this switch, they were supposed to be in the new gym mid-summer. Now, not so much.

My ODD is taking college classes in the fall. We had planned to do evening classes when she was in day gym, but enrolled her in morning classes once she got bumped. Right now she's in Puerto Rico (2 week camp), she previously went to Washington DC (1 week camp), and the gym was closed for an additional week. Right now it looks like my only option is to keep ODD home two days a week (they practice 6) so that my YDD can go to her practices (they only practice 2). I don't want to make my DD miss more gym and I don't like wasting tuition money, but I'm stuck and I'm stressed. I know this too is only temporary, and I don't want to get crazy about it. I'm not sure I'm even looking for advice so much as a place to vent and have some commiseration- my regular friends already think I am bats**t crazy for allowing the crazy commute in the first place. They are all on the make her quit bandwagon, and I don't want to fuel those flames.

Whew. That was a lot! Thanks for a safe place to let it out so I can let it go before DD gets home. Starting college is enough to stress without me adding to it.

 

[GymCMLA]

College kid to drive her or ydd? Carpool for the closer younger dd? Ride half way home with someone headed your direction?
I have 4 gymmies at 2 gyms in 2 different states (but only about 35-40 miles apart)
No one trains in the same groups. I totally get it!

 

[gymcat]

What a tough situation. You have every right to be annoyed and stressed. We would make it work in our family, too, even if it drove us nuts at the time.


I'm guessing carpooling for either gymmie is out? Otherwise, no advice, but plenty sympathy.

 

[MILgymFAM]

College kid to drive her or ydd? Carpool for the closer younger dd? Ride half way home with someone headed your direction?
I have 4 gymmies at 2 gyms in 2 different states (but only about 35-40 miles apart)
No one trains in the same groups. I totally get it!

College gymmie is 15, so not even old enough for her permit. Sigh. No one from her gym lives closer than 45 mins from us. Carpool for younger DD is complicated by living on base- on a base that's hard to access (harder than it should be).

Eta: I misunderstood and see now that you're asking if I could hire a college kid to drive, we are talking a 4 hour commute round trip in rush hour. I couldn't afford to pay someone to drive that! Lol.

 

[OzZee]

Sympathy, 3 kids, several different sports/jobs, 7 days a week activities.

If lifts are impossible, can anyone get dropped early? Use any public transport?

The gym wouldn't consider letting your gymmie work with the day group one or two days?
Anyone else in the same boat with the changes? Could she go to a friends earlier to go with them?

 

[MILgymFAM]

It's actually gotten more complicated (I didn't think that was possible). Apparently the groups that are changing do not do so until they move. So while she will have to go to nights, it's not until they move. That's still a problem (of course it is!) because her college classes are during day gym two days a week. There is really no solution to that..no carpool can let her be in two places at once, so unfortunately she will have to miss two days a week until they move. I can't even express how much I wish they had just kept the homeschool group all along. She would be enrolled in night classes and it wouldn't interfere at all with her sister. This is a whole bundle of problems that I didn't sign up for. Ah.

 

[MILgymFAM]

Anyone else in the same boat with the changes? Could she go to a friends earlier to go with them?

There is another girl in a similar situation- she decided to go back to public school when the homeschool group was dibanded- but I'm not sure what they're doing. I asked the coach and her mom but no response. I fear what happened is they just let her into the other group that is "full". End of the day, my DD isn't a priority. For good reason, mind you, but it's definitely a you will make it work or you won't attitude.

ETA the other girl was moved to the night group (even though it was "full").

 

[OzZee]

Arrggh I hope you can work it out. Very complicated and how do they expect you to keep jumping from days to nights etc!

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Can she move her classes to nights, if not this semester then next?

 

[MILgymFAM]

Can she move her classes to nights, if not this semester then next?

She can't this semester- her scholarship already ordered the books and paid the fees, and she is really looking forward to one of her classes that's only offered in the fall. By next semester she'll have been punted back to night gym again, but yes- she could enroll in whichever classes/sections we choose.

 

[twinmomma]

Ugh what a mess. Having two in very different sports with very different schedules I completely sympathize. When DD switched to T&T we had one singular option within a drivable distance for us. DS is switching baseball teams, to a team much closer to DD's OLD gym. Of course. We just found out that for the fall, practices will have DD ending at 6:30 in one place while DS is supposed to START at 6:30 in the other. Teleportation anyone? Why have these technologies not been invented yet!!!!