Parents Logistics Assistance

[Midnightd]

Hello fellow gym parents. I'm relatively new to this whole thing. I started both of my children (almost 5 and almost 7) in gymnastics in September. A few weeks ago we got an invitation for the almost 7 year old (boy) to try out for the pre-competitive "developmental" team at our gym. He did the tryout and passed. He would be starting the team in September, so I have some time to work out logistics. But basically, he will be doing 2 days a week. 4-7pm on Monday and 10-1 on Saturday. Saturday isn't an issue at all, but the Monday evening is throwing me for a loop. We're used to an hour or an hour and a half activity on weekday evenings (he's doing track this summer 2 days a week and it starts at 6pm). My husband and I share/alternate breakfast and supper responsibilities where he mostly does breakfast so I can go to work early and then I cook supper, and one or two days a week we swap. But on the days I do breakfast and drive the kids to school I don't get to work until 8 or so, which means I can't leave work until 4... which obviously doesn't work, and him being able to reliably leave work by 3 is very low.

If you have a similar schedule with your kids (evening gym time for multiple hours) and have multiple kids, what do you do to accommodate with your family? Who does which activities and how do you balance? Just looking for some insight and suggestions that might work or be worth considering for our family to make it work!

 

[Lurker]

The longer gym practices actually make it easier to facilitate other sibling activities. You can drop off, spend all that time at home with siblings/cooking/their activities. It's better than an hour or hour and a half practice that you stay for.

 

[skschlag]

How long is your commute?

Over the years, I did several things. Toward the end of my son's DP career, we had an hour commute, 4 hour practice, hour commute, 5 days a week. Here are some things we did that helped:

1. Meal prep on Sunday. Especially since it is just one day currently, you could cook the Monday dinner on Sunday, so that it just needs to be reheated on Monday. Then your husband could still do breakfast, and dinner is ready to go.

2. Crock pot meals on Monday. Prep in morning, cook all day.

3. If possible, go home after dropping him off and get dinner ready/spend time with your daughter.

Just a few ideas. When my son's gym was closer, I would come home and do things at home and/or with my daughter. When it was further, I would meal prep for the week on Sunday. It was a lot but worked for us.

Welcome to the wonderful world of men's gymnastics!!! I love it!

 

[langd0y]

Think about how invested you want to be with this gymnastics thing. Boys or girls...this small practice schedule will grow to many more hours as well as costs. DD is 11y/o L8 going to L9 now and does 5 days a week, 20+ hours. You eventually figure it out by dropping off, leaving, getting help from other gym parents, car pooling and such, but it's a grind to plan. It takes a village.

Doing other sports will be tough too when it gets more serious. MY DD has no time for anything else and I feel bad. I only say this because you mentioned developmental program. It moves fast if your son is skilled. You make it work at each stage, but be prepared to adapt for being late, conflicting sports, other committments. Get some close gym friends to help out esp if they live close.

 

[Midnightd]

How long is your commute?

Over the years, I did several things. Toward the end of my son's DP career, we had an hour commute, 4 hour practice, hour commute, 5 days a week. Here are some things we did that helped:

1. Meal prep on Sunday. Especially since it is just one day currently, you could cook the Monday dinner on Sunday, so that it just needs to be reheated on Monday. Then your husband could still do breakfast, and dinner is ready to go.

2. Crock pot meals on Monday. Prep in morning, cook all day.

3. If possible, go home after dropping him off and get dinner ready/spend time with your daughter.

Just a few ideas. When my son's gym was closer, I would come home and do things at home and/or with my daughter. When it was further, I would meal prep for the week on Sunday. It was a lot but worked for us.

Welcome to the wonderful world of men's gymnastics!!! I love it!

It's not a far commute at all, like 15 or 20 minutes with traffic. I will most likely have to do the meal prep thing. I'm sort of wanting to start going to the gym myself for a workout during his practice time, but I also don't want to pawn everything off on my husband and just be gone for the whole evening. So if I meal prep in advance then I know that at least he doesn't have to do any prep or cooking, just reheat. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Midnightd]

Think about how invested you want to be with this gymnastics thing. Boys or girls...this small practice schedule will grow to many more hours as well as costs. DD is 11y/o L8 going to L9 now and does 5 days a week, 20+ hours. You eventually figure it out by dropping off, leaving, getting help from other gym parents, car pooling and such, but it's a grind to plan. It takes a village.

Doing other sports will be tough too when it gets more serious. MY DD has no time for anything else and I feel bad. I only say this because you mentioned developmental program. It moves fast if your son is skilled. You make it work at each stage, but be prepared to adapt for being late, conflicting sports, other committments. Get some close gym friends to help out esp if they live close.

Yeah, I'm a bit scared of it getting crazy, especially since he is actually pretty good at running as well. It does seem as though the gym season and the track/running season don't overlap TOO much, so that could be helpful.

He does have one little friend from school (a girl) who is also in the developmental program at the same gym. I don't believe she has practice at the same time. We'll see what happens, though! He might make some other little friends at the gym.

 

[Pfiga]

My husband and I share/alternate breakfast and supper responsibilities where he mostly does breakfast so I can go to work early and then I cook supper, and one or two days a week we swap. But on the days I do breakfast and drive the kids to school I don't get to work until 8 or so, which means I can't leave work until 4... which obviously doesn't work, and him being able to reliably leave work by 3 is very low.

Could you arrange things so that you can go to work early and leave early on the day when your son has practice starting at 4? As others suggested, you could then go home, cook dinner, and then go back to pick him up.

Another option, if it's feasible for you, would be to find an afternoon babysitter/driver, who could pick your son up from school that day, take him home, give him a snack (he will need to eat before a 3-hour practice), and drive him to the gym.