Early morning kids sports on weekends

[Anonymous]

I wish it was earlier. Earliest dance option was 9am. I wish itvwas 6:30-7 or do. We would be done earlier and have our whole day ahead of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish our games this year were earlier. 9 would be ok. We have some 1pms, some 9s, some 2s. We’re all over the place, and it blocks us from being able to much of anything else.

Me again I also have to add, having the games all over the map makes it harder to sing our older dd up for her sport.
With work schedule (DH works some Saturdays), or choice to coach a season of soccer, and this game schedule, we will delay our dd’s individual sport lesson until November. She had just leveled up this summer.

I thought the younger kids’ games are usually done by 11, and I didn’t anticipate they would need more coaches, but they did. I have soccer experience so I said Yes.

[Anonymous]

How early are we talking about OP?

[Anonymous]

The 9 am stuff is not that bad. the problem comes in when the game starts at 9 but it’s an hour away. That’s when it takes up half your morning and everyone ends up feeling burned out. My kid has had local 9 am Saturday lessons for this or that for years and it’s been fine but having to be on the road at 8 on a weekend for kids sports is somehow uniquely brutal. Then there’s the drive back which by that time has quite a bit of traffic around busy shopping centers and such.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 9 am stuff is not that bad. the problem comes in when the game starts at 9 but it’s an hour away. That’s when it takes up half your morning and everyone ends up feeling burned out. My kid has had local 9 am Saturday lessons for this or that for years and it’s been fine but having to be on the road at 8 on a weekend for kids sports is somehow uniquely brutal. Then there’s the drive back which by that time has quite a bit of traffic around busy shopping centers and such.

Op - our kids sports are between 30-40 mins away. So yes the 9a starts mean breakfast at 730 etc etc. I do not naturally wake up that early and this morning esp was up till 11 finishing work on a pitch for Monday. 10 is much more civilized!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe you could volunteer to coach and then (maybe) you'll have more say in the schedule.

Coaches have absolutely no say in the schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish it was earlier. Earliest dance option was 9am. I wish itvwas 6:30-7 or do. We would be done earlier and have our whole day ahead of us.

You must have a toddler or PKer, right? By early elementary, very few kids naturally get up until 7. To get them to dance by 6:30 involves getting up by 6 at the latest. Assuming your kid is 6+, I think you are the only person in the world looking for that.

[Anonymous]

I don’t mind games that are 9am or later. For a 9, we have to leave the house by 8 and that’s the earliest I find tolerable. Fortunately, DH is a very early riser and happily takes DS to any games that require leaving the house earlier. Sometimes for travel games that are far, that has meant leaving the house at 6 or 6:30. I feel sorry for DS as it seems cruel to make sleep deprived teens get up so early on weekends. The flip of this is that I have to cover evenings which I’m not a fan of.

[Anonymous]

Love 8 am cross country, can’t stand 11/12 basketball

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish it was earlier. Earliest dance option was 9am. I wish itvwas 6:30-7 or do. We would be done earlier and have our whole day ahead of us.

You must have a toddler or PKer, right? By early elementary, very few kids naturally get up until 7. To get them to dance by 6:30 involves getting up by 6 at the latest. Assuming your kid is 6+, I think you are the only person in the world looking for that.

+1, and it can also mean robbing them of needed sleep and then they are cranky all day, but too old to willingly take a nap.

We leave for school at 8:30 am, which is quite a bit later than most people, and I still wind up having to wake up my 7 yr old many mornings because waking up by 7:45 or 8 is tough. She needs 12 hours of sleep and it's hard to get it in.

[Anonymous]

Yes my kids naturally wake up at 8 or later on weekends so with sports earlier have to wake them every day and every weekend - so they are sleep deprived. But the sports are good for them.
I am also sleep deprived

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe you could volunteer to coach and then (maybe) you'll have more say in the schedule.

Coaches have absolutely no say in the schedule.

Our rec coaches get a say in when they want to practice. They sign up for field space. Games are less in their control but DH makes a request to accommodate DD’s other sport’s schedule and they do their best to help us out.

[Anonymous]

I will forever be grateful that my child has always sucked at sports and hated sports. There are very few moments of joy that matched the day when he decided, no more. Talk about a praise party!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I told my husband that he would be on the hook for all games for our kid on a travel team (bc the local option would have been plenty). He was up at 6am to get him to a game two counties away. I slept until 9am and will get another kid to their local game this afternoon.

After so many years of schlepping kids to sports every season, I’m starting to hate it. Every other weekend would be plenty. Better yet: one evening game during the week to keep the weekends free.

If I were queen of the world, I’d institute a 90 min running clock for baseball.

The one-hour running clock for indoor lax was awesome!

This is so enlightening. Will NOT be signing my kid up for baseball. Thank you for your wisdom.

-mom of littles

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I told my husband that he would be on the hook for all games for our kid on a travel team (bc the local option would have been plenty). He was up at 6am to get him to a game two counties away. I slept until 9am and will get another kid to their local game this afternoon.

After so many years of schlepping kids to sports every season, I’m starting to hate it. Every other weekend would be plenty. Better yet: one evening game during the week to keep the weekends free.

If I were queen of the world, I’d institute a 90 min running clock for baseball.

The one-hour running clock for indoor lax was awesome!

This is so enlightening. Will NOT be signing my kid up for baseball. Thank you for your wisdom.

-mom of littles

I actually think field sports have more reasonable hours than many others that depend on more limited venues.
For example:

ice hockey - ice time is harder to get than field time. I don't have kids in this sport, but have walked by plenty of early am games as a swim parent because often we are at facilities with both pools and ice sheets.
figure skating - see above
swimming - 7 am warmup for swim meets are common, as kids get older they may have practice before school (dealing with 530 am practice at the moment)
rowing - early morning practice, and early races. We dropped off a kid at the river today at 430 am.
many many more on this list.
I would guess that sports requiring ice time are the worst offenders since ice rinks are rarer than fields, gyms, pools, etc. At least in my neck of the woods.