Events or meetings that start at 8pm or later on a weeknight

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I run a not for profit board and I’ve desperately tried to move meetings earlier and am met with resistance and inability to join the board due to needing to be home to put kids to bed. The board meets once a month, roughly 7-9 times a year. I have kids. Unless you don’t have a partner around (in which case, you’d already need a sitter to serve on the board anyway) I am utterly baffled by not being able to depend on your partner 7-9 times a year to handle bedtime alone. I hate starting the meetings late in the evening cause then it’s very late by the time I get home and I feel like I have not been able to unwind from the day at all.

I think it's not about "not being able" to depend on your partner, it's about preferring to be home for bedtime. The way you "prefer" to be home earlier and have time to unwind.

I'm one of the people who prefers later meetings so I can see my kids, have dinner together, and do bedtime. That would be particularly true about something recurring like that happening almost monthly. That being said, if they were earlier, my husband would do bedtime. It's a preference not a requirement.

[Anonymous]

I agree but there is only so much time in the day and there’s never a good time. I was a Girl Scout leader and couldn’t get parents to help if we met after school. 5 was too early for some parents to get home and get their kids there (granted pre-2020 when remote was not the norm). Meeting at 6 interfered with dinner. Our sweet spot was 7 but even then parents had to trek back out at 8:30 for pickup or complained it was late on a school night. When my son began playing travel soccer, dinner became impossible. Practices from 5:30-7 or 6-7:30 meant no family meals. Then my son hit MS and really late practices became a thing. His practices started at 8. Still do. It is so hard to drag out of the house in the dark and then be stuck sitting in the car for 90 minutes waiting (or the alternate running errands as stores are closing to kill time when I just want to be cozy on my salad). Now he practices an hour away and we don’t get home until 10:30. It’s horrible. But I don’t know what the alternate is!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree but there is only so much time in the day and there’s never a good time. I was a Girl Scout leader and couldn’t get parents to help if we met after school. 5 was too early for some parents to get home and get their kids there (granted pre-2020 when remote was not the norm). Meeting at 6 interfered with dinner. Our sweet spot was 7 but even then parents had to trek back out at 8:30 for pickup or complained it was late on a school night. When my son began playing travel soccer, dinner became impossible. Practices from 5:30-7 or 6-7:30 meant no family meals. Then my son hit MS and really late practices became a thing. His practices started at 8. Still do. It is so hard to drag out of the house in the dark and then be stuck sitting in the car for 90 minutes waiting (or the alternate running errands as stores are closing to kill time when I just want to be cozy on my salad). Now he practices an hour away and we don’t get home until 10:30. It’s horrible. But I don’t know what the alternate is!

That’s such a funny autocorrect for sofa. However, i would like to be cozy with a salad on my sofa. 😊