Anonymous wrote:I’m trying Melatonin on late practice nights, as soon as they walk in the door so it kicks in while they’re showering. It seems like it might be helping them to wind down?

Sick

What about a bath instead of a shower? It will take longer, but if he’s already dragging out the process by bouncing around…?

Run bath while he’s eating. Then he can sit in tub to digest and mellow out.

You don’t handle it. You accept that you’ve chosen to prioritize sports over sleep and routine and just deal with it. Don’t give him melatonin ffs.

How long is practice and your drive? When my kids have had practices starting at 7 or later, they have dinner before practice and a quick snack afterwards. If your drive is long enough, you could bring the snack for the car to save time. I have also served dinner directly after school at normal snack time and then snack later right before practice. Crockpot recipes are good for this.We never tried snack/dinner in the car on the way home because it’s a 5 minute drive.

Depending on the amount of direct and sweat, you could also skip the shower.

Lavender in the shower for drowsiness.

We also switched teams in the end.

Okay so the meltdown is because he’s tired, which you know, but at age 9 he should be able to brainstorm with you ways to do it faster WITHOUT the meltdown.

What if you bring a hearty smoothie for the drive home, instead of food to eat.

What if you got a shower speaker and picked an amount of time that’s acceptable for both of you and found songs that fit that time, so he knows when the 3 songs are over, he has to get out.

Teach him breathing techniques so when he’s unhappy about something he breathes first instead of melting down.

Anonymous wrote:Gotta eat dinner before practice. Crock pot and instant pot are used heavily in our household.

They can eat at 4 and are still starving at 9.

Eating in the car to speed things up never worked for us. Going to bed earlier on the non practice nights and catching up on weekends was how we handled it. It’s not ideal. As they got older, I said no to some tryouts because of location and practice times. Getting home at 10:30+ won’t work for me when I also need to get up for work.

I’m trying Melatonin on late practice nights, as soon as they walk in the door so it kicks in while they’re showering. It seems like it might be helping them to wind down?

Gotta eat dinner before practice. Crock pot and instant pot are used heavily in our household.

We found different sports/teams, unfortunately. Sleep is so crucial to the young developing brain.

We’re struggling with this right now. It’s summer and we’re at a high latitude so we still have light when practice ends at 8;30, but we don’t get home until 9:00 and DD can’t finish her entire dinner in the car because she’s too excited to talk through practice.

She just switched to a new schedule in late June and I have no idea how we’ll do when school starts given the fact that none of us have adapted yet. We said we’re going to take it one week at a time during the school year but I’m secretly freaking out. She’s a little calmer than your son, OP, but I can tell she’s worn out and struggling with the pressure of dinner-shower-lights out.

School was a little off for her socially last spring (she’s now a rising 4th grader) so her sport seems more important than it used to be because she has a good group of friends and supportive coaches. I don’t have good advice but you’re not alone.

The late practices can be tough on the whole family’s routine. I hated my kid heading out to practice at 7:00 when it was cold and dark - especially if I was the one driving.
We always made a point to evaluate at the end of each season if ds was still enjoying the sport/team - long days with late practices factor into this.

Haa wait two years until they aren’t getting home until 10:45 and are starving. If you are driving home from practice, eat in car. Sometimes we let him skip shower if he didn’t get too sweaty. It’s hard.

My 9 year old doesn't get home from practice until 9pm twice a week. He needs to eat and shower and is always amped. Its making our routines miserable. This is a kid who goes to bed at 830 on non practice nights. He is a total mess the next day. How have you dealt with this with your young kids? Any tips to make the transition to bed easier and quicker? In theory he should be able to eat something in the car, immediately shower and be in bed, but in practice he takes sooo long and gets upset when we try to rush him and then melts down. Tell me it gets better? He loves his sport but this isnt good for anyone.