Dinner can be a sandwich and some fruit once a week. Or like today I’m making soup for dinner tonight and making extra do tomorrow we can just heat it up. When our sports practice is at 6 we have a snack in the car on the way home too. So when we get home around 730 we can start showers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 4 we missed half the weeknight practices anyway. We just showed up for game day. The ones we actually went to, we hit McDonalds after.

Then why bother? Just wait until the kid is a little older to sign up

Because he was four. The "practice" was like teaching cats to play T ball. I wanted the kid to get familiar with the terrain, the equipment, the rules of the game, the other kids etc. The practice usually ended early and the kids went to the playground. I'm not going to kill myself trying to make weeknight practice for a four year old - I'll show up when I can. But you do you.

Yes, but someone was volunteering their time to herd those little cats. The very, very least you can do is show up to practice. It actually does matter. If you will show up when you can, do everyone a favor and don’t bother until you can commit to the bare minimum. Showing up for the games when you didn’t come to practice sends a bad message to your kid and the team.

Get over yourself. So dual income families can never do team sports unless mom cuts her day short so as not to miss the 4 yo practice? How very feminist of you.

Touched a nerve, did I? I simply responded to your post. It’s between you and your mate on how your kid gets to practice. My point was that it’s crappy to skip practice and then expect your kid to play in games.

I don’t care who gets your kid to practice. If your family cannot make it work, especially for a 4 year old, skip it and play in the backyard.

Signed - a full time working mom of 2 kids on 2 separate teams.

NP. Eh, half the team was out for vacations/illness at any point in time, but there were always enough kids to play. We tried to go to practices but didn't make every one. If a four year old's attendance to T ball is important to you, then you need some therapy.

You are completely missing the point. There is someone cutting THEIR day short on a regular basis to coach the kids. The least you can do is show up for practice. If you planned your day around being at practice and the coach randomly didn’t show up, how would you feel? Or told you 30 minutes before practice after you left work or stopped early that they weren’t coming? 50% of the time? Not cool, right?

If you know you are going to only show up for games, there are leagues (I9 comes to mind) that specifically cater to this.

If you know you can’t make it work, respect the volunteer’s time and don’t sign up. Or be VERY clear when you register that you are going to half ass it, so one poor soul doesn’t have a bunch of kids that don’t come to practice.

If you're going to half ass reading my post, why bother responding? And by the way, there was more than one coach for my son's T ball, and the coaches couldn't even make all the practices or games - oh, the horror! Yet still the game went on. But you're not fooling us, you're clearly the kind of parent who yells at your kid's T ball coach and you don't GAF about them personally.

Anonymous wrote:Your kid is 4! What time do you think a weeknight practice for FOUR year olds should be??? 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm?

To be completely honest I had no idea they'd even be practicing. I didn't sign him up (DH did), and I assumed this was a weekend thing, so when the practice schedule came out I was admittedly caught off guard.

Four year olds practicing t-ball seems sort of silly to me. But anyway, I agree on a weeknight there isn't really a better time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe this is already a thing but my 4 year old wanted to try t-ball and the practices are once a week at 6 pm.

I work FT and can't get dinner ready on the table at 5.

For those in similar situations, how do you handle food with something like this?

Most parents are not preparing a full fresh dinner every weeknight. If your kid does any activities in Elementary, it's not possible. Make a nice dinner on Sunday, save some leftovers, crockpot, sandwich for dinner night, warm up frozen food. You just can't make a whole dinner every night with kids activities.

I have been doing this until now which is why I was curious to learn how others handle it. These are all good suggestions. Thanks!

OP back.

Tonight was a trial run. I ended up doing a large snack at 5 and then fed him leftovers when he got back. That seemed to work well.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 4 we missed half the weeknight practices anyway. We just showed up for game day. The ones we actually went to, we hit McDonalds after.

Then why bother? Just wait until the kid is a little older to sign up

Because he was four. The "practice" was like teaching cats to play T ball. I wanted the kid to get familiar with the terrain, the equipment, the rules of the game, the other kids etc. The practice usually ended early and the kids went to the playground. I'm not going to kill myself trying to make weeknight practice for a four year old - I'll show up when I can. But you do you.

Yes, but someone was volunteering their time to herd those little cats. The very, very least you can do is show up to practice. It actually does matter. If you will show up when you can, do everyone a favor and don’t bother until you can commit to the bare minimum. Showing up for the games when you didn’t come to practice sends a bad message to your kid and the team.

Get over yourself. So dual income families can never do team sports unless mom cuts her day short so as not to miss the 4 yo practice? How very feminist of you.

Touched a nerve, did I? I simply responded to your post. It’s between you and your mate on how your kid gets to practice. My point was that it’s crappy to skip practice and then expect your kid to play in games.

I don’t care who gets your kid to practice. If your family cannot make it work, especially for a 4 year old, skip it and play in the backyard.

Signed - a full time working mom of 2 kids on 2 separate teams.

NP. Eh, half the team was out for vacations/illness at any point in time, but there were always enough kids to play. We tried to go to practices but didn't make every one. If a four year old's attendance to T ball is important to you, then you need some therapy.

You are completely missing the point. There is someone cutting THEIR day short on a regular basis to coach the kids. The least you can do is show up for practice. If you planned your day around being at practice and the coach randomly didn’t show up, how would you feel? Or told you 30 minutes before practice after you left work or stopped early that they weren’t coming? 50% of the time? Not cool, right?

If you know you are going to only show up for games, there are leagues (I9 comes to mind) that specifically cater to this.

If you know you can’t make it work, respect the volunteer’s time and don’t sign up. Or be VERY clear when you register that you are going to half ass it, so one poor soul doesn’t have a bunch of kids that don’t come to practice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 4 we missed half the weeknight practices anyway. We just showed up for game day. The ones we actually went to, we hit McDonalds after.

Then why bother? Just wait until the kid is a little older to sign up

Because he was four. The "practice" was like teaching cats to play T ball. I wanted the kid to get familiar with the terrain, the equipment, the rules of the game, the other kids etc. The practice usually ended early and the kids went to the playground. I'm not going to kill myself trying to make weeknight practice for a four year old - I'll show up when I can. But you do you.

Yes, but someone was volunteering their time to herd those little cats. The very, very least you can do is show up to practice. It actually does matter. If you will show up when you can, do everyone a favor and don’t bother until you can commit to the bare minimum. Showing up for the games when you didn’t come to practice sends a bad message to your kid and the team.

Get over yourself. So dual income families can never do team sports unless mom cuts her day short so as not to miss the 4 yo practice? How very feminist of you.

No one said mom only. But the PP is right about a volunteer is leading practice and showing up just for games is a jerk move.

No one said mom only but let’s be real here. Who’s going to cut the day short? Hack the original post is about a mom who was lamenting having to drive and make dinner. There’s a reason that women take the brunt of the pandemic PP. You’re pretty tone deaf if you don’t get that.

Not PP, but in my experience, it’s 50-50 moms and dads schlepping to practice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 4 we missed half the weeknight practices anyway. We just showed up for game day. The ones we actually went to, we hit McDonalds after.

Then why bother? Just wait until the kid is a little older to sign up

Because he was four. The "practice" was like teaching cats to play T ball. I wanted the kid to get familiar with the terrain, the equipment, the rules of the game, the other kids etc. The practice usually ended early and the kids went to the playground. I'm not going to kill myself trying to make weeknight practice for a four year old - I'll show up when I can. But you do you.

Yes, but someone was volunteering their time to herd those little cats. The very, very least you can do is show up to practice. It actually does matter. If you will show up when you can, do everyone a favor and don’t bother until you can commit to the bare minimum. Showing up for the games when you didn’t come to practice sends a bad message to your kid and the team.

Get over yourself. So dual income families can never do team sports unless mom cuts her day short so as not to miss the 4 yo practice? How very feminist of you.

No one said mom only. But the PP is right about a volunteer is leading practice and showing up just for games is a jerk move.

No one said mom only but let’s be real here. Who’s going to cut the day short? Hack the original post is about a mom who was lamenting having to drive and make dinner. There’s a reason that women take the brunt of the pandemic PP. You’re pretty tone deaf if you don’t get that.

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe this is already a thing but my 4 year old wanted to try t-ball and the practices are once a week at 6 pm.

I work FT and can't get dinner ready on the table at 5.

For those in similar situations, how do you handle food with something like this?

I don't have a good answer for you OP, but I am kind of shocked that anyone can do things in the evening with a 4 year old! Mine has an 8pm bedtime, so if practice is an hour (do they expect kids to practice for an hour?!?) we'd already be running into bath time by the time we got home even before we consider dinner. I suppose this is why my kid doesn't have such activities...

Original PP who only went to some of the practices here. Not to mention our coach was in the Navy reserves and frequently gone for drill. Other parents stepped in. Nobody faulted him or scolded him and told him that he shouldn’t sign up to be a volunteer coach on when he can fully commit to all of the games. It’s four year old T-ball. Relax. The baseball scouts aren’t out there in the stands yet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 4 we missed half the weeknight practices anyway. We just showed up for game day. The ones we actually went to, we hit McDonalds after.

Then why bother? Just wait until the kid is a little older to sign up

Because he was four. The "practice" was like teaching cats to play T ball. I wanted the kid to get familiar with the terrain, the equipment, the rules of the game, the other kids etc. The practice usually ended early and the kids went to the playground. I'm not going to kill myself trying to make weeknight practice for a four year old - I'll show up when I can. But you do you.

Yes, but someone was volunteering their time to herd those little cats. The very, very least you can do is show up to practice. It actually does matter. If you will show up when you can, do everyone a favor and don’t bother until you can commit to the bare minimum. Showing up for the games when you didn’t come to practice sends a bad message to your kid and the team.

Get over yourself. So dual income families can never do team sports unless mom cuts her day short so as not to miss the 4 yo practice? How very feminist of you.

Touched a nerve, did I? I simply responded to your post. It’s between you and your mate on how your kid gets to practice. My point was that it’s crappy to skip practice and then expect your kid to play in games.

I don’t care who gets your kid to practice. If your family cannot make it work, especially for a 4 year old, skip it and play in the backyard.

Signed - a full time working mom of 2 kids on 2 separate teams.

NP. Eh, half the team was out for vacations/illness at any point in time, but there were always enough kids to play. We tried to go to practices but didn't make every one. If a four year old's attendance to T ball is important to you, then you need some therapy.