Parents meet schedules

[Panda-girl's Mom]

Just when I thought I figured it out I find out my daughter is competing on the last session next Sunday. For the 1st 2 years she competed the compulsaries were usually on Saturdays in most of our meets but but now her meets seem to be on Sunday. Problem is I am supposed to work and daughter is insisting that I go. I do not know if I will ever get used to this finding out until the last minute the day and time of the session you are in. How do other parents deal with this.

 

[emorymom]

It is pretty new to me. It is strange to have a bunch of things on the calendar and not know what day of the weekend, time, do we have to get a hotel room because it's 8am? Or is it 12pm and we can drive in? Etc.

 

[UnoMas]

It is crazy isn't it? I am off on Fridays but not Mondays...but I also have some ability to flex the Friday/Monday thing. So that helps.

We reserve a room for the whole weekend of the meet and then cancel for the days that we end up not needing it.

We seem to have some Sunday afternoons coming up in our meet schedule too. Yuck!

 

[bogwoppit]

I have to say I do find it incredible that we allow ourselves to be hel hostage to the meet season. We only have 3 meets and we never know entilo about xmas when they are which means waiting on vacations etc. WHich means missing the deals.

Suffering for their art I guess!

 

[emandelsmom]

Same here. We make the reservation for the whole weekend and cancel what is not needed. My daughters are next Sunday as well. We are driving down and letting them compete and driving back home. Save the cost of a room and it is onlly 2 hours drive. I also hate Sunday meets. But it means hubby won't miss work.

 

[MeetDirector]

Greetings -

Being a gym parent I feel your pain. Being a meet coordinator, feel my pain.

Our gym is hosting a big meet next weekend with over 330 girls. I am still today getting gyms adding and deleting girls. We try to get the session schedule out at least 3 weeks before the meet, 1 month if possible. Session schedules are driven by the number of girls, the age divisions, time available, etc. We will only change a session schedule if there is absolutely nothing else that can be done because then you have the problem of getting the word out. If gyms would figure out their entries by the deadline and then not change anything, it would be much better.

There, enough venting; you hit a nerve this morning.

RK

 

[cathiann]

Yeah, finding out at the last minute is no fun, but I know from the gym side, it's frequently impossible to get it out sooner as the gyms change entries, etc. (RK--I can understand your pain).

As far as your daughter--I know she will be upset, but if you have to work, you have to work! There's nothing you can do about it--beyond finding someone to work for you (is that an option?) or calling in sick (obviously more dishonest).

When a hotel is involved, we do the same as others have said--reserve for the whole weekend, then cancel what we don't need!

 

[snowbound]

I can feel your pain as well! (and yours, RQ) of course there are girls who make their motility scores and end up moving up (or don't make them and won't be in the level the gym signed them up for) and sometimes that can be determined by the meet the week before. I hate split age groups. Our meet in two weeks my DD's level is split into two sessions by age, so most of her friends are in a different session.

Not just hotels, either! We have two little brothers to find a babysitter for! We are lucky in that if the meet is near an airport, we can fly to it most of the time. We only had to stay overnight once last year. I hope we get that lucky this year!

Of course, this year we will have to go to some meets on Friday, those can be tricky because my DH has trouble getting out of work.

Snowbound