Parents How do you juggle other kids/activities?

[JessSyd]

We have been managing with carpooling, tight scheduling, and the occasional use of public transport but have just reached the point where we will have to buy a second car so we can use the divide and conquer strategy. It seems such a huge thing to do - a whole extra car just to enable kids' sport and music (and Scouts, which often requires drop offs at obscure far away places, but at least that one is easy to carpool).

I sometimes have fantasies about sending my daughter to one of those private girls' schools with its own gymnastics club, so she can just walk straight from her final class each day to the gym. So much easier and more relaxing for her than the mad dash we do right now. And they bus their girls to competitions. Every now and then I look up the school fees on the various websites (don't know why - maybe in case one of their finance officers has gone mad and quartered the fees), but every time they are still so expensive that I sigh and forget about it. Until the next time I get all optimistic and forgetful (surely they weren't that high??) and do it again.

 

[Anna's_Mom]

We have been managing with carpooling, tight scheduling, and the occasional use of public transport but have just reached the point where we will have to buy a second car so we can use the divide and conquer strategy. It seems such a huge thing to do - a whole extra car just to enable kids' sport and music (and Scouts, which often requires drop offs at obscure far away places, but at least that one is easy to carpool)..

I don't know what is available in your area, but we use a "child transportation service" to kids to things that start before DH or I get home from work. Basically a limo service (well, they drive SUVs) run by two moms. Licensed, bonded, insured, backgrounded etc to the teeth. They pick kid up at location A and drop them at location B. Bill me at the end of the month. Since it is always one of the two owner/drivers I know exactly who she will be riding with. I found them through the all-mighty Google.

 

[Mrs. Puma]

What a great idea!!! I'm sure they do quite well!

 

[JessSyd]

Wow that sounds like a great business idea. And I will google!

Around here, parents tend to use a 'mother's help'. Not quite a nanny, but someone who runs the kids around in the hours between school finishing and work ending. They usually turn out to be uni students with a car and a free afternoon. I am contemplating it for one very logistically difficult afternoon, but it is a big deal to ask someone so young to drive your kids around so I am dragging my feet a bit. And of course cat seat laws mean that transporting six year olds around requires a uni student willing to have a car seat strapped into the back if their car, which isn't a cool look!

 

[COz]

And of course cat seat laws mean that transporting six year olds around requires a uni student willing to have a car seat strapped into the back if their car, which isn't a cool look!

You can get ones that fold up do you can pop them in the boot. They're not as padded, but perfectly safe. Baby shops and BigW have them. About $50 from memory.

 

[Momof2]

My kids are only aloud to pick one sport. Luckily both of mine have picked gymnastics. My husband and I both work full time jobs so their is no way we can fit in another sport. Both my daughters want to do soccer but they don't want to give up gym either. They have to learn how to make tough choices.

 

[Anna's_Mom]

Which works if you have two of the same gender or boys and girls teams schedules mesh. That wouldn't help day to day challenge for me at all!

 

[emorymom]

Well there's me and my mom (primary) and DH as backup. Yes running my household requires 3 licensed drivers to raise 2 children. Things were easier in the seventies when the adult just lit another cigarette and told the child no you can't (play Little League, join the swim team, etc). Oh well, a problem of my own making.

 

[LJL07]

Wow!! I am just checking back in. I've been juggling kids since I was off work the past two days, so not much internet/posting time.
I recently saw a very sweet video someone made of college gymnast Michaela chernoch, and I saw at the end of the video it was noted that her parents never missed a meet her entire career. I immediately thought "uh-oh..."
Yes, the kids only do one thing each, but even the one thing each is proving to be extremely time consuming!!
@Anna's_Mom what a fabulous idea!! A child transportation service! We don't have anything like that around here, but if we did, it would make a killing.
@mimi A relaxing weekend?! What's that??
@lemondrop Wow. That's extreme! I can definitely relate to the 6 loads of laundry needing to be folding. In fact, I should probably be doing that instead of posting on CB.
In looking through the calendar, there are many more soccer games than gym meets, so I guess if I miss a handful of soccer games but make it to the rest, it won't be the end of the world. These times are vastly different from the 1970's. My parents cannot relate. They think we are nuts.

 

[LJL07]

It's a huge pain, I can say that. I only have two kids and both are gymnasts, but at different gyms and in different disciplines. I am the only one to take them to everything so the schedule is painstakingly maintained.

Between the two I drive over 200 miles a week for gym and sit at the two gyms about 15 hours combined (I stay to save gas- that would be over 400 miles if I went home). Plus meets. I also cook dinner everyday before school is out to pack up and eat on the road. It's all rather exhausting to be honest.

I guess I would rather miss some of each than have to be the one to do it all, if I had the choice.

You are awesome!! The cooking dinner part is amazing! Way too much takeout over here...

 

[dani4]

We aren't there yet because my kids are so young, but I can imagine that this is going to be an issue. DH and I are also competitive athletes with our own weekend commitments, ok DH is the real athlete while I'm just pretending. But I don't plan to give up my sport. Luckily our races tend to be in the summer and fall, which is opposite the gymnastics season.

 

[LJL07]

We aren't there yet because my kids are so young, but I can imagine that this is going to be an issue. DH and I are also competitive athletes with our own weekend commitments, ok DH is the real athlete while I'm just pretending. But I don't plan to give up my sport. Luckily our races tend to be in the summer and fall, which is opposite the gymnastics season.

Do you run? still able to do some short races spur of the moment, but no more long ones. No time anymore.