Parents Working parents - not welcome ?? (Driving)

[SuperDad7]

Hey gym parents,

Does anyone ever struggle with their kids gymnastics schedule? My DS got asked to move from pre team to team and that's 2x more practices. But they all start at 3:30pm. Like most, i work a full-time job that requires to be on site for 7 hours. Usually that's until 4pm. So obviously, I thought 3:30pm was a bit wacko, especially since most schools finish by then. But when i spoke with gym, apparently, i was the first to complain about start time. I quickly was informed later on, that most parents of the kids on team are stay-at-homes or their own business of some sort.

In summer time, these practices will start 10:30am. Like, I'm not the one off school, my kid is...

To those working parents who's jobs literally pay their kid's gymnastics, how do you guys juggle driving kids to practice while also working a full - time? Is gymnastics really that inaccessible to those who work? My son loves the sports and i feel guilty not letting him do it for my sake but at the same time, if i don't work, i cant pay tuition.

 

[momofsushi]

Hi, 9 years of driving my daughter to gymnastic here and we are both working full time. Would have been unable to survive without carpooling and … my dad contribution. When another teamate join team, I always ask my daughter where she lives in case I can add her to our carpooling google sheet. I would also add that I sometimes drive my daughter a little bit early, or late, because of work.

 

[bookworm]

We lived 1-2 hours from the gym their whole 17 years in the sport and carpooling and a flexible work schedule was my friend. One year we were the only ones driving the 2 hour commute so i hired a college student friend to drive them back and forth all summer on the days i could not.

 

[GymDadWA]

My wife was able to work from home for her job, so she scheduled breaks when she needed to drop the kids off. Our gym also was less than 15 minutes from the school so it wasn't too hard to get them to practice on time. There were some teammates at her school that she could get a ride with but we didn't car pool too often as we didn't want to make different families responsible for another child or have to figure out how to get in touch with another family if there was a problem.

If we both had to be in office and couldn't leave to pick up the kids I don't think we could have done activities with that kind of requirement.

 

[SuperDad7]

We lived 1-2 hours from the gym their whole 17 years in the sport and carpooling and a flexible work schedule was my friend. One year we were the only ones driving the 2 hour commute so i hired a college student friend to drive them back and forth all summer on the days i could not.

Omgsh 2 hour drives back and fourth! I’m blessed that our gym is 20 minutes away!

you’re literally a super hero! Your kids have the best parents ever! Will try amd see with other parents once I get comfortable with the team vibes and such if we take that route. Trusting someone else with your kid is a big deal!

What happens if plans fall through and carpool parent isnt driving anymore?

 

[SuperDad7]

My wife was able to work from home for her job, so she scheduled breaks when she needed to drop the kids off. Our gym also was less than 15 minutes from the school so it wasn't too hard to get them to practice on time. There were some teammates at her school that she could get a ride with but we didn't car pool too often as we didn't want to make different families responsible for another child or have to figure out how to get in touch with another family if there was a problem.

If we both had to be in office and couldn't leave to pick up the kids I don't think we could have done activities with that kind of requirement.

Ah, I used to have that kind of flexibility until recently!

And I feel the same way about responsibility! I hate feeling like a burden when somebody else has to lookout for my kid! But my son really loves the sport so im debating if that’s a risk I’m willing to take…

thanks for sharing how you and your wife manage your daughters intense schedule!

 

[SuperDad7]

Hi, 9 years of driving my daughter to gymnastic here and we are both working full time. Would have been unable to survive without carpooling and … my dad contribution. When another teamate join team, I always ask my daughter where she lives in case I can add her to our carpooling google sheet. I would also add that I sometimes drive my daughter a little bit early, or late, because of work.

Thanks for sharing!

I’d also fall into the latter category if we decide on team. How late did u ever bring her? Did this affect her when she got to gym?

When I was a gymnast, coach used to make us condition and run outside when we were late for practice and I would end up resenting my parents for it. Would hate for my DS to feel the same…

 

[Mthegymqueen]

Omgsh 2 hour drives back and fourth! I’m blessed that our gym is 20 minutes away!

My teammates are shocked to find out that my drive is 30 minutes away (which feels like a lot!). I can't even imagine 2 hours back and forth

 

[LCsMom]

Hey gym parents,

Does anyone ever struggle with their kids gymnastics schedule? My DS got asked to move from pre team to team and that's 2x more practices. But they all start at 3:30pm. Like most, i work a full-time job that requires to be on site for 7 hours. Usually that's until 4pm. So obviously, I thought 3:30pm was a bit wacko, especially since most schools finish by then. But when i spoke with gym, apparently, i was the first to complain about start time. I quickly was informed later on, that most parents of the kids on team are stay-at-homes or their own business of some sort.

In summer time, these practices will start 10:30am. Like, I'm not the one off school, my kid is...

To those working parents who's jobs literally pay their kid's gymnastics, how do you guys juggle driving kids to practice while also working a full - time? Is gymnastics really that inaccessible to those who work? My son loves the sports and i feel guilty not letting him do it for my sake but at the same time, if i don't work, i cant pay tuition.

You didn't say how old your son is, but I feel this.....for the past 17 years (read: ever since my kids were born) working and parenting and transportation in particular have been issues. I question the gym's notion that most of the parents don't work or own their own business; at our gym, 97% of the parents work, and we have similar impossible start times, especially in the summer. It's always been like that. Even having school get out at 3:30pm has been impossible until my kids were old enough to fend for themselves at home. Last year, school got out at 3:30pm and practice started at 4pm. Like that was going to work for anybody!

Yet.... somehow....we've always made it work in the end. At one point earlier in their lives I flexed my schedule so that I could pick them up from school and get them to their activities. Eventually we got together with a bunch of similarly strapped for time gym parents and got a bunch of car pools set up for drop off and pick ups, not just for gymnastics, but all the other activities, and now my kids are older and their friends are starting to drive, which opens up a whole new (sometimes scary) world.

But yeah....even as I type this my gymnast is sitting in my office with her book and her phone, waiting for practice to start at 11:45am on a workday. Fortunately, I work close enough to her gym that she can actually walk there.

I hope you can make it work! But also, if it's really just impossible, it's okay to say no.

 

[SuperDad7]

You didn't say how old your son is, but I feel this.....for the past 17 years (read: ever since my kids were born) working and parenting and transportation in particular have been issues. I question the gym's notion that most of the parents don't work or own their own business; at our gym, 97% of the parents work, and we have similar impossible start times, especially in the summer. It's always been like that. Even having school get out at 3:30pm has been impossible until my kids were old enough to fend for themselves at home. Last year, school got out at 3:30pm and practice started at 4pm. Like that was going to work for anybody!

Yet.... somehow....we've always made it work in the end. At one point earlier in their lives I flexed my schedule so that I could pick them up from school and get them to their activities. Eventually we got together with a bunch of similarly strapped for time gym parents and got a bunch of car pools set up for drop off and pick ups, not just for gymnastics, but all the other activities, and now my kids are older and their friends are starting to drive, which opens up a whole new (sometimes scary) world.

But yeah....even as I type this my gymnast is sitting in my office with her book and her phone, waiting for practice to start at 11:45am on a workday. Fortunately, I work close enough to her gym that she can actually walk there.

I hope you can make it work! But also, if it's really just impossible, it's okay to say no.

thank you so much for sharing!

My son just turned 5 in May. Seeing your comment did gave me a sense of relief. Im glad to know I’m not the only who has thought the gym’s schedule work against parents work times.

I’m happy to hear about the working parents thing. I guess at my gym, according to coaches, team parents are usually stay at homes or have a very flexible schedule.

DS really likes the sports so I will look into friends and family who might be able to help and eventually even carpooling if that works with some team parents. 3:30pm school and 4pm practice looks like the a glimpse into my future lol but we’ll see. Definitely gonna come back to your posts whenever I need that sense of encouragement lol.

 

[SuperDad7]

My teammates are shocked to find out that my drive is 30 minutes away (which feels like a lot!). I can't even imagine 2 hours back and forth

When traffic is bad, it can take up to 30-40 minutes for me as well and I thought that was bad.

Especially for just 2 hours practices , driving back and fourth feels like such a draggg. Makes me wish my mom stayed home with us for just a little longer

 

[SupportingHerDreams]

I have a fairly flexible job but I still pay my sister to help with drop-off/pick-up. Maybe you could find a retired neighbor or an older highschooler or college student that could use a little extra cash and work out something?

Honestly other than school sports it has been my experience that most sports are not conducive to both parents working outside the home full-time. Creativity is in order to be able to participate in most extra curriculars that I have seen.

 

[jm_gymmom]

We have a similar schedule. I work part time and carpool with another part time working mom. We cover the days we are home and if we both work a day, we’ve done various things to make it work. Sometimes my MIL will run them, we have also at time shared the cost of hiring a responsible high schooler or college student to drive them certain days a week. A few years ago we paid a rec coach to pick them up from school and take them to practice (it was kind of on her way to work so it was perfect).

Can you send out a message to teammate families and see if you can make some sort of helpful connection?

I would say most of our team have 2 working parents however many do have flexible jobs or a helpful grandparent.

 

[momofsushi]

Thanks for sharing!

I’d also fall into the latter category if we decide on team. How late did u ever bring her? Did this affect her when she got to gym?

When I was a gymnast, coach used to make us condition and run outside when we were late for practice and I would end up resenting my parents for it. Would hate for my DS to feel the same…

Good question! We have a very open communication with the gym. I share the schedule, notify in advance and my daughter knows that attendance is important and won’t miss/be late unless its for school/sickness or work schedule.

Thanks for sharing!

I’d also fall into the latter category if we decide on team. How late did u ever bring her? Did this affect her when she got to gym?

When I was a gymnast, coach used to make us condition and run outside when we were late for practice and I would end up resenting my parents for it. Would hate for my DS to feel the same…

 

[JessSyd]

I have a fairly flexible job but I still pay my sister to help with drop-off/pick-up. Maybe you could find a retired neighbor or an older highschooler or college student that could use a little extra cash and work out something?

This is what I did when my daughter was little - paid a trustworthy university student to pick her up from school and drop her at gym. It was a successful arrangement while it needed to be, but it was good to get more flexible working hours eventually so I could do it myself.

 

[BusyMomof2]

We're 4 years into team and I don't think I've met a stay at home parent (I am sure there are some, but all the parents I've become friendly with work). It's a struggle but as others said, we've figured it out. I work from home with and have flexibility but that sometimes translates to starting work super early or working into the evening to accommodate the drive to the gym. Others on our team have a carpool, others hire a nanny/driver to get their girls to and from.

We live in a congested metro area so the drive can be 20 - 45 minutes depending on the traffic. Sometimes I will just stay in the area to avoid doing the back and forth twice - meet a friend, read a book at a coffee shop, bring my laptop to get work done, random errands...

 

[coach_M]

Thanks for sharing!

I’d also fall into the latter category if we decide on team. How late did u ever bring her? Did this affect her when she got to gym?

When I was a gymnast, coach used to make us condition and run outside when we were late for practice and I would end up resenting my parents for it. Would hate for my DS to feel the same…

I would hope this doesn’t happen too much anymore (depending on circumstance ofc). I have a few kids that are always late and while we do talk about how important it is that they’re there for warmup, I know that they are not the ones getting themselves to gym and it’s usually not their fault and out of their control so wouldn’t imagine punishing them for it.

 

[SuperDad7]

We're 4 years into team and I don't think I've met a stay at home parent (I am sure there are some, but all the parents I've become friendly with work). It's a struggle but as others said, we've figured it out. I work from home with and have flexibility but that sometimes translates to starting work super early or working into the evening to accommodate the drive to the gym. Others on our team have a carpool, others hire a nanny/driver to get their girls to and from.

We live in a congested metro area so the drive can be 20 - 45 minutes depending on the traffic. Sometimes I will just stay in the area to avoid doing the back and forth twice - meet a friend, read a book at a coffee shop, bring my laptop to get work done, random errands...

So far, the ones I know either are their own bosses schedule wise or stay at-home moms/dads. I guess seeing that made me a lil discouraged.

Seeing all your replies about making it work for your kids really encouraged me to do some gymnastics of my own. So far, we’ve got family that picks him up from gym and I manage to do drop off by like you said, going to work later than usual.

Hopefully, something magic happens like a cash hungry college student or a flexible work schedule comes my way very soon lol

 

[estamey21]

My working parents would never be able to drive us to the gym. Throughout the years, other gym parents, babysitters, and neighbors (for hire) would take us to the gym. Every year was a slightly different arrangement. My parents were always able to pick us up after practice and we carpooled whenever possible. It got harder to coordinate the commute as I advanced to higher levels because the number of potential carpoolers started diminishing and I moved to a gym that was much farther away. By the time I was allowed to start learning how to drive, the first thing my parents taught me was how to drive myself to gymnastics

 

[Gymini]

Hey gym parents,

Does anyone ever struggle with their kids gymnastics schedule? My DS got asked to move from pre team to team and that's 2x more practices. But they all start at 3:30pm. Like most, i work a full-time job that requires to be on site for 7 hours. Usually that's until 4pm. So obviously, I thought 3:30pm was a bit wacko, especially since most schools finish by then. But when i spoke with gym, apparently, i was the first to complain about start time. I quickly was informed later on, that most parents of the kids on team are stay-at-homes or their own business of some sort.

In summer time, these practices will start 10:30am. Like, I'm not the one off school, my kid is...

To those working parents who's jobs literally pay their kid's gymnastics, how do you guys juggle driving kids to practice while also working a full - time? Is gymnastics really that inaccessible to those who work? My son loves the sports and i feel guilty not letting him do it for my sake but at the same time, if i don't work, i cant pay tuition.

Gyms should make reasonable accommodations for parents and kids…usually a 4pm or 4:30pm start time.