How do you make summer swim with RTO?

[Anonymous]

My god, you WFH people don’t know how to figure anything out. Surely you know others in your situation. I was in the office, 8-5, while my kids were young.

[Anonymous]

This is why we never did swim team or joined a pool for our kids - with 2 working parents in office (and even when we WFH, we didn't have the flexibility), the schedules didn't align. Our local pool practice schedule was made by a SAHM and basically didn't work for us. Kids ended up taking up other sports and worked out well for them! It's not the end of the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why we never did swim team or joined a pool for our kids - with 2 working parents in office (and even when we WFH, we didn't have the flexibility), the schedules didn't align. Our local pool practice schedule was made by a SAHM and basically didn't work for us. Kids ended up taking up other sports and worked out well for them! It's not the end of the world.

+1. I’m a SAHM and couldn’t get my then-5 year old onto the Knights of Columbus swim team 2 years ago. They said they were already full. I haven’t tried since because we found other things to do. So, if it works, great, if not, no big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our team reps have been on top of the situation and our pool is offering “camp friendly” AM practices from 7-8. We won’t need it because my kids are older, but I hope it helps other families be able to participate.

How is that friendly? Parents need to be in D.C. by 8am and kids are chilly at 7am.

Wetsuit. Older kids get used to it.

Yep and if it’s anything like last summer it will already be 85 degrees at 7 AM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My god, you WFH people don’t know how to figure anything out. Surely you know others in your situation. I was in the office, 8-5, while my kids were young.

You know you don’t have to be a complete a-hole, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've always hired a sitter for the summer instead of doing camps so our kids can do swim team.

There are plenty of teens who don't have summer jobs and would jump at the chance to be a summer sitter.

Disagree. I've done this and it hasn't worked out now for 3 summers with 3 different nannies. Last years was the worst. Despite paying $25 an hour, she kept threatening to quit on us nonstop because she wasn't making enough money. I think maybe they have unrealistic expectations and it was a pretty easy gig with two well behaved girls.

We had a lot of success splitting the summer between 2 graduating seniors and camps. The girls were friends - one recommended the other to us - and I think it was helpful they weren't doing full days of childcare day in and day out.

I will say - I don't think it was the best for my kids from a "staying occupied in a healthy way" perspective. They watched a lot of TV.

I have teens now and looking back, I don’t think it’s bad if they have a few hours downtime in the afternoons when it’s really too hot to enjoy being outside.

Swim in the morning, home for lunch, hottest part of afternoon spent inside resting, reading, drawing, and some TV or video games isn’t awful. Then playing outside/trampoline/bike ride then dinner. If parents stagger schedules this is very doable with summer babysitter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've always hired a sitter for the summer instead of doing camps so our kids can do swim team.

There are plenty of teens who don't have summer jobs and would jump at the chance to be a summer sitter.

Disagree. I've done this and it hasn't worked out now for 3 summers with 3 different nannies. Last years was the worst. Despite paying $25 an hour, she kept threatening to quit on us nonstop because she wasn't making enough money. I think maybe they have unrealistic expectations and it was a pretty easy gig with two well behaved girls.

Hire my daughter this summer please!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We've always hired a sitter for the summer instead of doing camps so our kids can do swim team.

There are plenty of teens who don't have summer jobs and would jump at the chance to be a summer sitter.

Disagree. I've done this and it hasn't worked out now for 3 summers with 3 different nannies. Last years was the worst. Despite paying $25 an hour, she kept threatening to quit on us nonstop because she wasn't making enough money. I think maybe they have unrealistic expectations and it was a pretty easy gig with two well behaved girls.

We had a lot of success splitting the summer between 2 graduating seniors and camps. The girls were friends - one recommended the other to us - and I think it was helpful they weren't doing full days of childcare day in and day out.

I will say - I don't think it was the best for my kids from a "staying occupied in a healthy way" perspective. They watched a lot of TV.

I have teens now and looking back, I don’t think it’s bad if they have a few hours downtime in the afternoons when it’s really too hot to enjoy being outside.

Swim in the morning, home for lunch, hottest part of afternoon spent inside resting, reading, drawing, and some TV or video games isn’t awful. Then playing outside/trampoline/bike ride then dinner. If parents stagger schedules this is very doable with summer babysitter.

I am the PP you quoted. This is true! Both of my kids didn't do swim though. I have a younger DD so she was spending a lot of time inside. It still turned out fine and they LOVED their time with the big kids.

[Anonymous]

Here's the thing- its summer swim. Do what works for your family.
If you have summer camps that the kids love that works for your schedule- and your kids don't especially like swim team- take a year off.
If your family loves the swim team socials, but don't especially care about swimming- sign the kids up and attend when it works for you- if that means your kids don't practice after school gets out- that's okay.
If you want to be 'all in' for swim- then hire a teen for the weeks of swim team. Maybe take a few weeks off as a staycation- you might really love this after having been in the office 5 days a week. To take a couple weeks off at the beginning of the summer, when the kids are excited for summer and the pool, and spend time relaxing at the pool and getting stuff done around the house sounds fantastic.
Most pools also have 'camper practice' options- either super early in the morning or a couple of late afternoons a week. Personally the thought of trying to get kids up super early, and sitting at the pool in work clothes, then rushing them to camp sounds miserable to me. I feel similarly about trying to get kids to go practice in the late afternoon when they are tired from a day at camp- but YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why we never did swim team or joined a pool for our kids - with 2 working parents in office (and even when we WFH, we didn't have the flexibility), the schedules didn't align. Our local pool practice schedule was made by a SAHM and basically didn't work for us. Kids ended up taking up other sports and worked out well for them! It's not the end of the world.

Same here. My kids went to day camps with after care. Getting them to the pool at 10 am on weekdays was not an option.

[Anonymous]

Do I need to notify the team reps before attending the clinic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's the thing- its summer swim. Do what works for your family.
If you have summer camps that the kids love that works for your schedule- and your kids don't especially like swim team- take a year off.
If your family loves the swim team socials, but don't especially care about swimming- sign the kids up and attend when it works for you- if that means your kids don't practice after school gets out- that's okay.
If you want to be 'all in' for swim- then hire a teen for the weeks of swim team. Maybe take a few weeks off as a staycation- you might really love this after having been in the office 5 days a week. To take a couple weeks off at the beginning of the summer, when the kids are excited for summer and the pool, and spend time relaxing at the pool and getting stuff done around the house sounds fantastic.
Most pools also have 'camper practice' options- either super early in the morning or a couple of late afternoons a week. Personally the thought of trying to get kids up super early, and sitting at the pool in work clothes, then rushing them to camp sounds miserable to me. I feel similarly about trying to get kids to go practice in the late afternoon when they are tired from a day at camp- but YMMV.

This!! I was a swimmer and my DD loves it so far so I take a couple of staycation weeks and hire a babysitter for the other weeks. Between that and the Fourth of July week, which my DH can usually telework, there is not that much to cover. The post-school season is really only about a month unless your kid is in Divisionals or All-Stars. But plenty of kids from our low division pool do camps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our team reps have been on top of the situation and our pool is offering “camp friendly” AM practices from 7-8. We won’t need it because my kids are older, but I hope it helps other families be able to participate.

How is that friendly? Parents need to be in D.C. by 8am and kids are chilly at 7am.

I know of very few people who have a hard 8 am start time, and I know no one where both parents have a hard 8 am start time. One parent goes to work early and is home early, and the other does the am practice/camp run and gets to work around 9. Many of us did this dance pre-Covid, it’s annoying but it’s only for 8 weeks. Pull yourselves together feds, being a parent that works outside the home is not a novel concept. 🙄

Then you find a pool with evening hours.

[Anonymous]

And if you think you can make it work with just afternoon practice, get ready for practices that are usually half-assed coached, always overcrowded, and rarely conducive to improving as a swimmer. And all the social and pep stuff is after morning practice.

So short answer - unless you hire a nanny to continue the pre-RTO routine for your kids, expect their summer swim experience to be drastically different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And if you think you can make it work with just afternoon practice, get ready for practices that are usually half-assed coached, always overcrowded, and rarely conducive to improving as a swimmer. And all the social and pep stuff is after morning practice.

So short answer - unless you hire a nanny to continue the pre-RTO routine for your kids, expect their summer swim experience to be drastically different.

This perspective is pool dependent. Folks will need to research what afternoon practices are like (if even offered). Although I agree on the spirit stuff blah blah. Making summer swim work involves a lot of trade offs. You figure out which ones are most important to you.