Parents What is typical summer practice schedule level 3?

[Tulip811]

our gym is offering practice 4 days a week 12-3. How do working parents manage this?

 

[2gymkids]

Unfortunately, that's pretty typical in our experience. I honestly don't know- I only worked PT when my daughter was on team and I was able to work around the schedule. Parents that worked full time used a combination of babysitters, high school kids or other parents to help transport, and local family if they had it. Some were able to work at home some, as well. It's tough to figure out, for sure.

 

[Sk8ermaiden]

I feel like we lose a couple gymnasts every year when their parents can't make the summer schedule work.

 

[John]

I try to team up with a parent that deoesnt work summers. This year and last year a wondeful mom who is a teacher. I take to practice every morning and she picks up and watches Dani till I am done work. I occasionally use a vacation day and pick up. It is very hard.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Summer for 2 and 3s are evenings 6 hours, option of doing Monday morning.

All of the gymnasts have the option of doing full days M-F on camp weeks

L4 and up 4 mornings 3 hour per, plus camp weeks.

As to how its managed, car pooling, flex scheduling, help of friends and relatives. And there are some days practice doesn't happen. There have been years where we had to pay for day camp and gym and my daughter ended up at camp less then half the time we paid for.

12-3 stinks though. That worse then evenings.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Our gym doesn’t usually change the schedules for the compulsories, only the Optionals.

 

[ProvB]

My daughter is level 3, training 4 and her summer schedule is supposed to be Mon-Thurs 7:30-11:30am. I had to make arrangements to start work at 11 and pick her up an hour early and drive her directly to daycamp on my way to work. It’s tough, especially as a single parent with nobody to split the driving with.

 

[MuggleMom]

That was basically our schedule the past 2 years for level 3 and we are 4 days a week 12:30-4:30 for level 4. They have started an evening group now though so half the kids are during the day and half at night. Funny enough parents got used to the day schedule and those at night are not very happy about it.

 

[gymdoc]

We hired a college student the last 3 years. Practice was 8:30-12:30 M-F. She took them to practice, picked them up from practice and watched them in the afternoons. I paid her full time even though she essentially had mornings off
This year another working mom and I are sharing morning drop off and we hired a car service to pick them up

 

[amiandjim]

I wish we had more daytime practices in summer! Our gym pretty much leaves compulsory the same except they change the Saturday practice to Friday afternoon for level 4. So level 3 is staying 4-7 3 days a week. For level 4, we actually have 2 6-9 PM practices, a 4-7, and a 1-4. Add to that the 6-9 AM practices twice a week for fast track, it’s kind of a wacky schedule!

 

[SMH]

Level 3 practices 12-2:30 3 days a week at our gym. My kiddos likes practice during the day because it’s only team kids and no rec, so the gym is empty and quieter, ha

 

[CuriousCate]

our gym is offering practice 4 days a week 12-3. How do working parents manage this?

I wish our gym did this. We keep our standard evening hours so my kids have to do camp all day and then gym at night. I always feel so bad that their summers are more exhausting than the school year because most camps offered for their age group are activity based. The working parent plight is a rough one in the summer... what would she do if not at gym? Camp? If so, then you'll probably find that hiring a morning sitter that will take her to gym will end up cheaper than the summer full of camp. Also see if your gym runs its own camps....if so, they may let your kiddo stay for their aftercare program until you can pick her up. The one week of team camp, our gym lets our kids come to before and after care that is run for their summer rec camps. We pay for it, but it is pretty reasonable.

 

[mommyof1]

This will be my daughter's fourth summer of daytime practice. A summer nanny is not financially feasible for us, especially since we only have one child (it gets more feasible when you are considering the cost of day camp for multiple kids). The first two years, I dropped her off at the gym in the morning, worked from home during practice, picked her up, drove her across town to day camp, drove to the office to work for the afternoon, then drove home. It was 4+ hours per day in the car 3 days a week the first year, 4 days a week the second year. It nearly drove me batty.

Last year, we found an after-school program that ran a pretty lame day camp but was willing to pick her up at practice. It was divine. She aged out of that program, and fortunately we've found a similar program for older kids that is willing to provide transportation this summer. So my best advice is to look at after-school programs exclusively for school-aged kids (not programs at day care centers, regular day camps, the Y, etc.), and see whether they have summer programs with transportation. In our experience, sports-based programs seem to be the most flexible about providing transportation.

12:00 - 3:00 is really rough because you will need child care and transportation on both ends. You might see whether you could pay one of the stay-home parents to pick your child up at day camp, drop her off at practice, pick her up, and watch her until you get off of work.

 

[mommyof1]

Our gym doesn’t usually change the schedules for the compulsories, only the Optionals.

Ours is the opposite--compulsories practice during the day, optionals in the evening. And my daughter is taking her sweet time getting to optionals.

 

[Tulip811]

This will be my daughter's fourth summer of daytime practice. A summer nanny is not financially feasible for us, especially since we only have one child (it gets more feasible when you are considering the cost of day camp for multiple kids). The first two years, I dropped her off at the gym in the morning, worked from home during practice, picked her up, drove her across town to day camp, drove to the office to work for the afternoon, then drove home. It was 4+ hours per day in the car 3 days a week the first year, 4 days a week the second year. It nearly drove me batty.

Last year, we found an after-school program that ran a pretty lame day camp but was willing to pick her up at practice. It was divine. She aged out of that program, and fortunately we've found a similar program for older kids that is willing to provide transportation this summer. So my best advice is to look at after-school programs exclusively for school-aged kids (not programs at day care centers, regular day camps, the Y, etc.), and see whether they have summer programs with transportation. In our experience, sports-based programs seem to be the most flexible about providing transportation.

12:00 - 3:00 is really rough because you will need child care and transportation on both ends. You might see whether you could pay one of the stay-home parents to pick your child up at day camp, drop her off at practice, pick her up, and watch her until you get off of work.

Yes, this summarizes the complexity. I have an older son (9yo) who will be at daycamp. and being a working parent, I reserved and paid for daycamp for both of my kids back in February. So what I'm looking at is, paying for daycamp for ds, paying for daycamp for dd (which she would only attend for a few hours), paying for gymnastics, and paying someone to transport her here to there and back again. I just don't see how this is do-able. Ugh. Plus the gym is about 5mi across town from where we live and where daycamp is. There is another gym nearer our house and our side of town so I doubt there will be many kids with SAHMs who live anywhere near where we do. I just don't see this working out. I feel bad for my daughter, but mid-day practice is not compatible with working parents.

 

[Getoutyall]

Does your gym have a camp? That's what I did with my daughter the first year she would do camp in the morning they'd give her an hour break to eat lunch and relax, switch to practice in the afternoon, and then hung out with the campers another hour until i could pick her up. And the plus was that she got to know all the coaches well.

 

[triplethreat+1]

Ours is similar. Team kids get a good discount on the rec camp that our gym has so kids of working parents can do that. Personally I work part time and also use a combination of a sitter in walking distance of gym and my mom who will pick them up some days.

 

[jessifrostR]

I feel your pain!! I have a level 3 too and our summer practice is 2:30-5:50 Monday-Thursday! We both work but I had to quit my job at the hospital and switch to working in home health care for a more flexible schedule to accommodate her crazy gym hours.

 

[jessifrostR]

I feel your pain!! I have a level 3 too and our summer practice is 2:30-5:50 Monday-Thursday! We both work but I had to quit my job at the hospital and switch to working in home health care for a more flexible schedule to accommodate her crazy gym hours.

Oh also we had to hire a nanny part time that is willing to drive her to gymnastics. Carpooling isn’t an option since we live 30 minutes away.

 

[jessifrostR]

Yes, this summarizes the complexity. I have an older son (9yo) who will be at daycamp. and being a working parent, I reserved and paid for daycamp for both of my kids back in February. So what I'm looking at is, paying for daycamp for ds, paying for daycamp for dd (which she would only attend for a few hours), paying for gymnastics, and paying someone to transport her here to there and back again. I just don't see how this is do-able. Ugh. Plus the gym is about 5mi across town from where we live and where daycamp is. There is another gym nearer our house and our side of town so I doubt there will be many kids with SAHMs who live anywhere near where we do. I just don't see this working out. I feel bad for my daughter, but mid-day practice is not compatible with working parents.

If I were you I would cancel day camp and hire a babysitter to watch both kids all summer and drive your daughter to practice and pick her up.