Can working parents make summer swim happen?

[Anonymous]

Our team’s evening practices start at 6:00. For many years those were the only practices my kids went to after camp. Now they are old enough to ride bikes to am practice. We have 200 kids in the team.

It is very unfortunate that other pools can’t/wont allow this. So many members of our team have 2 working parents so it’s very necessary for many families. I’ve always appreciated the effort made to be inclusive.

[Anonymous]

Our team has two morning practices and two late afternoon practices. Through a mix of carpooling, older siblings, one parent with flexible work, etc., most families with kids who want to do swim team can do it. I know of a few where the parents prefer not to make the commitment, and that’s fine. It’s also fine for kids to not do every activity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our team’s evening practices start at 6:00. For many years those were the only practices my kids went to after camp. Now they are old enough to ride bikes to am practice. We have 200 kids in the team.

It is very unfortunate that other pools can’t/wont allow this. So many members of our team have 2 working parents so it’s very necessary for many families. I’ve always appreciated the effort made to be inclusive.

Our head swim coach is a public school teacher and has to have another job to pay her bills, so practices are always done by 9:30 AM (with the earliest session from 6:45-7:45 AM) and no evening practices. Our junior coaches also have day jobs and can't do a double practice schedule. Our team isn't big enough to afford more coaches. It's great if other clubs offer an evening option, but not every team can do this. We actually switched to this pool just because the swim team practice times do work for our working family (done before many camps start), while our prior pool had mid-morning practices that didn't work for us.

[Anonymous]

We done it with a babysitter, carpools, and flexing our jobs. Our pool’s am practice is at 8 for little kids so that helps.

[Anonymous]

Our team does multiple morning and afternoon practice slots. Kids are allowed to do 2-a-days if they want or come as often or as little as works for their families. I find that people I talk with often don't have accurate information about the team's times and activities and _think_ they can't do it when they actually might be able to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our team’s evening practices start at 6:00. For many years those were the only practices my kids went to after camp. Now they are old enough to ride bikes to am practice. We have 200 kids in the team.

It is very unfortunate that other pools can’t/wont allow this. So many members of our team have 2 working parents so it’s very necessary for many families. I’ve always appreciated the effort made to be inclusive.

Our head swim coach is a public school teacher and has to have another job to pay her bills, so practices are always done by 9:30 AM (with the earliest session from 6:45-7:45 AM) and no evening practices. Our junior coaches also have day jobs and can't do a double practice schedule. Our team isn't big enough to afford more coaches. It's great if other clubs offer an evening option, but not every team can do this. We actually switched to this pool just because the swim team practice times do work for our working family (done before many camps start), while our prior pool had mid-morning practices that didn't work for us.

I understand why smaller teams cannot do two practices. However, I think the afternoon practices are the fun ones because there are generally more kids and the kids hang out to play afterwards.

The morning practice you described sounds like kids go to swim and they rush off to change for camp. If there is only one option for practice, I think the evening practice would be more fun.

[Anonymous]

We both work full time. We just hire a college aged sitter for the first 5 weeks of summer. It’s worked well for us. I prefer it to jumping around and managing camp sign ups anyway. A couple camps in some areas of interest after swim is done, a vacation and that is summer for us.

When it works we’ve split the sitter with another family and that’s been great. But with two kids, paying for a summer sitter is the same if not less than paying for two different camps every week so it has always seemed like a reasonable option to me. But yes, a barrier if you aren’t UMC which is very problematic. But it’s mostly my UMC friends paying for camp for 2-3 kids saying they can’t do it, that part is confusing for me.

It is just a worth it thing that we prioritize, i do get why others might not - it’s a lot of work too. But I feel like the benefits outweigh that for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our team’s evening practices start at 6:00. For many years those were the only practices my kids went to after camp. Now they are old enough to ride bikes to am practice. We have 200 kids in the team.

It is very unfortunate that other pools can’t/wont allow this. So many members of our team have 2 working parents so it’s very necessary for many families. I’ve always appreciated the effort made to be inclusive.

Our head swim coach is a public school teacher and has to have another job to pay her bills, so practices are always done by 9:30 AM (with the earliest session from 6:45-7:45 AM) and no evening practices. Our junior coaches also have day jobs and can't do a double practice schedule. Our team isn't big enough to afford more coaches. It's great if other clubs offer an evening option, but not every team can do this. We actually switched to this pool just because the swim team practice times do work for our working family (done before many camps start), while our prior pool had mid-morning practices that didn't work for us.

I understand why smaller teams cannot do two practices. However, I think the afternoon practices are the fun ones because there are generally more kids and the kids hang out to play afterwards.

The morning practice you described sounds like kids go to swim and they rush off to change for camp. If there is only one option for practice, I think the evening practice would be more fun.

There are some kids who rush off (just as there would be on a weeknight with families needing to do dinner and bedtime), but also a good number who are hanging out while older or younger siblings finish their practice. And kids hang out lots with meets 2-3x per week, plus team socials and pep rallies, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our team’s evening practices start at 6:00. For many years those were the only practices my kids went to after camp. Now they are old enough to ride bikes to am practice. We have 200 kids in the team.

It is very unfortunate that other pools can’t/wont allow this. So many members of our team have 2 working parents so it’s very necessary for many families. I’ve always appreciated the effort made to be inclusive.

Our head swim coach is a public school teacher and has to have another job to pay her bills, so practices are always done by 9:30 AM (with the earliest session from 6:45-7:45 AM) and no evening practices. Our junior coaches also have day jobs and can't do a double practice schedule. Our team isn't big enough to afford more coaches. It's great if other clubs offer an evening option, but not every team can do this. We actually switched to this pool just because the swim team practice times do work for our working family (done before many camps start), while our prior pool had mid-morning practices that didn't work for us.

I understand why smaller teams cannot do two practices. However, I think the afternoon practices are the fun ones because there are generally more kids and the kids hang out to play afterwards.

The morning practice you described sounds like kids go to swim and they rush off to change for camp. If there is only one option for practice, I think the evening practice would be more fun.

Morning practice are definitely more full and fun at our pool and kids bond more at those practices. Little kids may rush off to practice but the older kids stick around and hangout all morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Swim clubs in general are for the UMC. They’re the non-wealthy family’s country club, and were created to keep out people of color and other underprivileged. While membership rules and housing laws have changed, team practice times and volunteer requirements do not favor those with working parents. If swim teams become too small, they probably become more flexible. Ours has 200+ swimmers so they are not changing anything too soon.

This is not true.

[Anonymous]

Our team offers 7:30 am, M-F and 5:00 pm M,T,Th practices. Most team members have working parents but I’ve seen a variety of:

-attending only evening practices
-attending morning practice and going straight to camp/work
- kids ride bike or walk to pool with older sibling or neighbor
-carpooling with another family
-parents work remotely
-grandparents help
-sitter/nanny brings the kids

It is not showing privilege to do any of these options. Some would consider working a 9-5 job is a privilege (or even 8-6!) We have parents in the medical field that work 4 ten-hour days/ week and they make it work. We have parents who work labor jobs with non traditional hours that make it work.

But like everything else in the world, if it doesn’t work for your family, nbd. There’s no requirement to participate! No one will judge you if your kids don’t join the swim team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our team’s evening practices start at 6:00. For many years those were the only practices my kids went to after camp. Now they are old enough to ride bikes to am practice. We have 200 kids in the team.

It is very unfortunate that other pools can’t/wont allow this. So many members of our team have 2 working parents so it’s very necessary for many families. I’ve always appreciated the effort made to be inclusive.

Our head swim coach is a public school teacher and has to have another job to pay her bills, so practices are always done by 9:30 AM (with the earliest session from 6:45-7:45 AM) and no evening practices. Our junior coaches also have day jobs and can't do a double practice schedule. Our team isn't big enough to afford more coaches. It's great if other clubs offer an evening option, but not every team can do this. We actually switched to this pool just because the swim team practice times do work for our working family (done before many camps start), while our prior pool had mid-morning practices that didn't work for us.

I understand why smaller teams cannot do two practices. However, I think the afternoon practices are the fun ones because there are generally more kids and the kids hang out to play afterwards.

The morning practice you described sounds like kids go to swim and they rush off to change for camp. If there is only one option for practice, I think the evening practice would be more fun.

Morning practice are definitely more full and fun at our pool and kids bond more at those practices. Little kids may rush off to practice but the older kids stick around and hangout all morning.

Not at our pool. Our pool is closed during swim practice in the morning and once it is over, you have to leave and come back. Practice is from 9-10am and preteam from 10-10:30. Swim team cannot use the pool during pre-team practice and when it is over, everyone needs to leave. There is no life guard on duty the entire time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our team’s evening practices start at 6:00. For many years those were the only practices my kids went to after camp. Now they are old enough to ride bikes to am practice. We have 200 kids in the team.

It is very unfortunate that other pools can’t/wont allow this. So many members of our team have 2 working parents so it’s very necessary for many families. I’ve always appreciated the effort made to be inclusive.

Our head swim coach is a public school teacher and has to have another job to pay her bills, so practices are always done by 9:30 AM (with the earliest session from 6:45-7:45 AM) and no evening practices. Our junior coaches also have day jobs and can't do a double practice schedule. Our team isn't big enough to afford more coaches. It's great if other clubs offer an evening option, but not every team can do this. We actually switched to this pool just because the swim team practice times do work for our working family (done before many camps start), while our prior pool had mid-morning practices that didn't work for us.

I understand why smaller teams cannot do two practices. However, I think the afternoon practices are the fun ones because there are generally more kids and the kids hang out to play afterwards.

The morning practice you described sounds like kids go to swim and they rush off to change for camp. If there is only one option for practice, I think the evening practice would be more fun.

Morning practice are definitely more full and fun at our pool and kids bond more at those practices. Little kids may rush off to practice but the older kids stick around and hangout all morning.

Not at our pool. Our pool is closed during swim practice in the morning and once it is over, you have to leave and come back. Practice is from 9-10am and preteam from 10-10:30. Swim team cannot use the pool during pre-team practice and when it is over, everyone needs to leave. There is no life guard on duty the entire time.

I guess every pool has different policies. kids are no longer allowed in the water after their practice ends because the pool is being used by mini team and the dive team, but other kids do stick around and hang out until the pool officially opens or kids walk to local stores to get snack and come back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our pool, the kids who can’t come to morning practice are pretty much locked into a situation where it’s impossible to improve.

There are three lanes for evening practice, 7-8 kids/lane of mixed age groups, and often an indifferent assistant coach who doesn’t want to coach a second practice a day, and little to no instruction.

It’s a real shame but summer swim seems to be really difficult unless you have one stay at home (or remote working) parent or a full time nanny.

Interesting. This must be why swim team parents come up with so many stupid volunteer activities like countless events and concessions stands - the SAHMS are looking for ways to make themselves feel useful while shaming the working parents for not volunteering enough. I say this as a non swim team parent at a pool - I observe this dynamic. There is so much useless volunteer work that seems like make-work. And the moms do jobs the teen swimmers should be doing, like setting out chairs the night before.

We have well over 150 swimmers and almost every single family has two working parents, including the families that fill the most demanding volunteer positions. You’ve posted about SAHMs and “make work” before. I’m sorry that volunteering SAHMs make you feel so lousy, but you’ve created a summer swim narrative that simply isn’t accurate at many pools. Summer swim requires a lot of volunteering; seek to understand the roles before you determine they’re “male work”. And do you really know the employment status of all the volunteers you observe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t really understand the complaint. Full-time working parent family here and we send the kids to early morning practice. Meets are in the evening or on weekends and yes it’s a lot, but so are all the other sports throughout the year. There’s no perfect set up for extracurricular activities and we are all making choices. Summer is hard, so is the school year. There is not a month or activity at any point during the year that we are not trying to flex schedules or piece childcare together. And we are not in travel sports and try to do one or two things at a time. There only so many hours in the day to make adjustments for everyone’s unique situation.

It works because your pool offers an early morning practice! I would happily take my DC at 7am, I could then drop them at camp and go to work, but their practice isn’t until 1030am. We hired someone to take them from camp to practice this summer along with a few other families, but that only works because the camp and pool are within walking distance of each other. Maybe we’ll see about trying to find a summer nanny once my youngest is in school. DH has very little job flexibility and there’s only so much I can do on my own.

I get that there are competing forces at play with pool use, but I wish our pool wasn’t so resistant to the early morning practice idea. We’ve had the same coaches and parent reps for over a decade and I get the sense there is just resistance to change.