What am I doing wrong? How is everyone juggling multiple sports for multiple kids at multiple locations?
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Anonymous
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Kids are 7 (b), 11 (b), 15 (g) and I’ve not yet been able to have all three in a sport in a season that doesn’t overlap with practice start times or end times or the actual game times.
How is everyone managing the multiple sports with multiple kids? I see it all across social media. Parents are at games for multiple kids or off to practices for multiple kids but locally logistically this isn’t working out for us. What am I doing wrong? |
Anonymous
| We only have two kids so it's easier to divide and conquer. When you get to three kids you either need to find some carpools or miss some things. |
Anonymous
| At that age you’re just the taxi. You can try for carpools. But chances are that you can make it work if both parents do the driving. |
Anonymous
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Sometimes practice times overlap. We arrange carpools. Or one of us will take both kids, drop kid 1 off at activity 1, drop kid 2 off at activity 2, then go back for kid 1. Sometimes a kid arrives late to practice (we tell the coach ahead of time). Spouse and I share driving equally.
It's a lot of running around. Weekend games are hard, sometimes spouse goes to one and I go to the other. Summer swim team is great because they all go to the same place at the same time. |
Anonymous
| For starters, you are outnumbered. Since you have more kids than you can handle you are going to have to set up a carpool. Also, if you work this will be very difficult if you don’t have a flexible schedule. |
Anonymous
+1. You need to start organizing carpools. |
Anonymous
| If its rec sports, you or DH have to coach and pick the practice/game schedule that works for you. |
Anonymous
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With three kids, you’ll need to develop strong carpool and team friendship bonds. There have been times when we had one or more of our kids’ teammates stay with us for a weekend during tournaments, and other parents have reciprocated.
Now that we are down to one kid at home, we do more of the heavy lifting than families with multiple kids just as our friends with one or two kids did for us when we had three going in different directions. |
Anonymous
Depending on the sport/league it's not always in the coach's hands either. Field/court/pool availability can be very limited. |
Anonymous
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Your 15 year old should be able to be dropped off early/picked up a little late. Or, if you are in an area with decent public transportation or safe bike routes, get herself to and from practices.
There may even be older kids on the team that drive and live close by and are willing to drive her in exchange for gas money. |
Anonymous
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Carpool carpool carpool.
And you can't be really picky about everything being even. A carpool works for me if I can can get my kids where they need to be and someone else can drive if I cannot. Sometimes that means I drive a ton and the other parent does a little bit. But it eventually comes evens out if you do it long enough. I also agree to give anyone rides who asks. That way I don't feel bad asking that parent for a ride another time. If I have a seat in my car and you're heading in the same general direction, yay, you're in. |
Anonymous
| My mom only let us pick one activity. We couldn’t both pick something like a winter sport so I played winter basketball and my brother played spring lacrosse. |
Anonymous
| Older kids get phones, dropped off early and picked up late. My kids sometimes have to wait 30 mins for me to get there. I just do the best i can, make sure phone are charged and keep driving. |
Anonymous
| I carpool, and I don’t watch practices. |
Anonymous
| I have 3. We carpool all the time. Other families love it and so do we. Sometimes I have to be a little late picking up the oldest. He knows, plays on his phone until I arrive |