Find someplace to workout that's convenient. I used to wake up at 5 and be home by 6:30, when my kids got up. Your teens should absolutely be able to get themselves up, and if you go early enough you can prod them if necessary.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) people list bedtime when you wake at an early hour, it really frames the response. Most working parents probably can’t get to be by 930 after getting home at 6, making dinner, activities for kids, and cleanup from the day. That’s only 3.5 hours.

2) OP was asking for working parents I think, but didn’t clarify in her post. It’s trivially easy to make work out time when you work full time, and then have 8 hours to do with what you will every day. I lived at the gym before kids.

3) bike/run commutes, I always like the idea, but I found the packing of a change of clothes and gear to shower at work ate almost as much time as a regular workout. I don’t think this adds any efficiency but does help the planet

4) teaches, what are your butt in seat hours, like elem goes 9-3:50, is it 830-420?

Why so many excuses? You just have to make time for a workout.

Nobody makes time other than God. Thanks for your helpful suggestion.

Everyone gives you suggestions and you swat them away. Or worse, you say "you must not have kids." Guess what, plenty of people who are at least as busy as you find time to workout. You could to, but you CHOOSE not to. Make a different choice or stop whining.

There are a lot of assumptions and silly decisions in this thread.

Like the assumption that anybody “full time employed” must have 8 hours of free time a day. Nonsense. People marathon train while being an associate at a big law firm in their first couple of years all the time.

The other silly thing is this idea that you have to cede all your free time to your children, particularly when they are in high school and should be figuring their way on their own. They will need to do that eventually.

Like you say. It’s all about choices. Everybody can find at least 45 minutes a day. It’s not magic. You just delete something else or expect somebody else to do something, lose some compensation, etc….

+1

Really important lesson, couldn’t agree more

Who the F is talking about high school students? OP has elementary kids.

The OP literally says: “I have teens who need me after school.”

Can you read?

Mixed up with another working parent thread. Yeah I got nothing, working out is very doable then. After age 12, kids need you a lot less and you can expect more cleaning help from teens

Anonymous wrote:Please don't weigh in if you are a sahp parent or work part time. I used to work part time and I was able to fit exercise in. Now that I'm full time I'm really struggling. I do not work from home and have no time to fit exercise in on my lunch break, which is very short. I have teens who need me after school.

Please tell me what your workout schedule is and how you fit it all in. Thx!

Pre pandemic i used to wake up around 5:45 and go for a run. Post pandemic i run whenever my teens don't have something in the evening. I also joined a gym near work and go during lunch time.

Pre-pandemic we were in a tiny townhouse and I had to be in my car commuting by 7 a.m. in order to be at my desk on time, and I had to leave by 4 p.m. in order to pick kids up, so I truly feel your pain. I was not getting workouts in and I felt like crap. I started getting up early and going to orangetheory to work out before work. I would either shower there or shower at the gym in my office. It was HARD to get up so early, but I slept in my workout clothes, set the alarm on my apple watch, had everything packed and ready by the door, brushed my teeth, and left. It was so worth it to get to work with the endorphin rush of a hard workout already under my belt. You can do it!

We moved and I WFH now and work out 4-5 days a week in our basement after the kids get on the bus in the morning. It's a luxury I really don't take for granted!

On days I work from home, I usually go hiking/running or to a barre class at lunchtime. In the winter, I go cross-country skiing at lunchtime (we moved to a mountain town). Otherwise, it's all over the place.

I wake up at 4:30 am Mon-Fri. I get dressed and drink a cup of coffee. I start my workouts a little before 5 am. They’re usually 30-45 minutes long. My current schedule:

M, W, F: strength training
T, Th: interval training (Tabata or Sprint)
Sat: rest or long bike ride
Sun: strength training and long bike ride or hike

In the summer, I go running first thing in the morning. In the winter I go running during lunchtime on days working from home or after work on days when coming back from office.

Kids are out the door for their commutes at 7 a.m., so that gives me time to go for run, shower, and get to office, or to go to work earlier and leave earlier, so that I can do my run before dinnertime.

One thing I could never do is running late in evening, but I used to take Zumba classes at night, and that worked out fine.

A lot depends on your work flexibility, e.g. ability to WFH at least a few hours per day (if not full-time), to count commute as work time (if on conference calls, emailing on metro, etc.). We also have employers worry about us getting our jobs done, not obsessing over exact clock hours, so some days we only put in 6-7 hours total, other days might be as many as 11-12... and occasionally might make up a few hours on the weekend if there's a crunch (I'd estimate this happens about once a month).

7a-830a - family breakfast, chores, off to school
830a-3p - Core 6 hours of work (w/ 30 min lunch)
3p-5p - Typically one parent continues working while the other picks up kids, takes to extracurriculars, supervises homework, etc.
5-8p - Family time with dinner, extracurriculars/homework, showers, etc.
8p-11p - Typically one parent handles bedtime routines, the other goes back to work for a git. The other might go back to work post-bedtimes if needed. We often watch a show together.

So where's the workout? Sometimes in the 3-5p window the non-school-pickup parent works out if their work schedule is light that day. Sometimes one parent works out in the 8-11p window. Sometimes during the kids' extracurricular activities (e.g. music lessons are 30 mins long, so not worth driving back/forth, so just take a 25 minute run around that neighborhood during the lesson). Occasionally I fall asleep while putting the kids to bed around 9p and am thus naturally awake before 7a and have time to do a workout then.

I know some folks need a routine of when they work out daily, but I find just having an accountability chart where I can check off daily that I did my workout works better. I have that flexibility to get it done early, but if I can't or I miss because something came up or whatever, there's still time to fit it in later. If I try to make it a routine where I _always_ do it in the morning or at lunch time or whatever, then I find once things come up that throw off the schedule it just falls by the wayside... better to plan for flexibility from the get-go (but couple that with the nightly accountability of tracking that you DID in fact get it done... and if you didn't you still have an hour or two at night to hop on treadmill/bike or lift some weights or do flexibility work or whatever your routine is.

Op I posted as the FT employed single parent.

Ds was 5/6/7 at the time.
I had nobody else to rely on regularly.
Work hours 8:15 - 4:30
Monday evening: my meeting 6:00 - 8:00
Tues ds activity 6:30 - 7:30
Wed my meeting once/month
Thurs ds activity
Fri evening off. Grocery shop after work, ds could stay at day care longer.
Sat am ds activity. Lunch with my parents. Laundry.
Sunday more laundry and meal prep.

I did household chores after ds went to bed. He had a bad dust allergy and asthma. I closed his door, opened windows (weather depending) and cleaned.

If working out is important to you, you will carve out the time.

Widowed mom of two teens. Work full time in an office. In bed by 10:00, asleep by 10:30. Up at 5:30. Meditate, journal and work out with Peloton content before 7:00am (bike 3xs a week, weights 2xs a week, yoga/stretching mixed in). It is a practiced commitment, kind of like getting to my job on time. I walk at night with a friend once a week and try to go for a hike or a longer Peloton bike ride on the weekend.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) people list bedtime when you wake at an early hour, it really frames the response. Most working parents probably can’t get to be by 930 after getting home at 6, making dinner, activities for kids, and cleanup from the day. That’s only 3.5 hours.

2) OP was asking for working parents I think, but didn’t clarify in her post. It’s trivially easy to make work out time when you work full time, and then have 8 hours to do with what you will every day. I lived at the gym before kids.

3) bike/run commutes, I always like the idea, but I found the packing of a change of clothes and gear to shower at work ate almost as much time as a regular workout. I don’t think this adds any efficiency but does help the planet

4) teaches, what are your butt in seat hours, like elem goes 9-3:50, is it 830-420?

Why so many excuses? You just have to make time for a workout.

Nobody makes time other than God. Thanks for your helpful suggestion.

Everyone gives you suggestions and you swat them away. Or worse, you say "you must not have kids." Guess what, plenty of people who are at least as busy as you find time to workout. You could to, but you CHOOSE not to. Make a different choice or stop whining.

There are a lot of assumptions and silly decisions in this thread.

Like the assumption that anybody “full time employed” must have 8 hours of free time a day. Nonsense. People marathon train while being an associate at a big law firm in their first couple of years all the time.

The other silly thing is this idea that you have to cede all your free time to your children, particularly when they are in high school and should be figuring their way on their own. They will need to do that eventually.

Like you say. It’s all about choices. Everybody can find at least 45 minutes a day. It’s not magic. You just delete something else or expect somebody else to do something, lose some compensation, etc….

+1

Really important lesson, couldn’t agree more

Who the F is talking about high school students? OP has elementary kids.

The OP literally says: “I have teens who need me after school.”

Can you read?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) people list bedtime when you wake at an early hour, it really frames the response. Most working parents probably can’t get to be by 930 after getting home at 6, making dinner, activities for kids, and cleanup from the day. That’s only 3.5 hours.

2) OP was asking for working parents I think, but didn’t clarify in her post. It’s trivially easy to make work out time when you work full time, and then have 8 hours to do with what you will every day. I lived at the gym before kids.

3) bike/run commutes, I always like the idea, but I found the packing of a change of clothes and gear to shower at work ate almost as much time as a regular workout. I don’t think this adds any efficiency but does help the planet

4) teaches, what are your butt in seat hours, like elem goes 9-3:50, is it 830-420?

I’m up by 4 am for a 5 am class or walk.I go to bed by 9. I’m a teacher. I have 2 kids. I will go to sleep before I do the dishes. Quit making excuses , you’re not more special than the rest of us.

Thanks, living in filth with a constant sink full of dirty dishes is your secret, now I understand. Not for me.

You come off as a judgy B. Enjoy your stroke or heart attack at 55 because a spotless sink was more important than your health.

Agreed, this person and others are not willing to sacrifice things that just don’t matter. Or they are making other choices. Nobody is saying abandon your kids on the side of the road, but this idea that you can’t find 45 minutes a couple of times a week is ludicrous. I have friends that alternate training for full distance triathlon with young children. Their kids are performing and functioning just fine. My wife isn’t into endurance sports, but does other things consistently. Our kids are also performing just fine, and might actually have the ability to navigate the world on their own some day, and may even find time to exercise. Crazy that idea.

triathlon widow is a thing, and I’m 100% your buddies are dumping the tasks on their wives, who probably has to bail on her career to keep life afloat.

Did you read what I wrote about ALTERNATE? As in they both do these events, just not overlapping.

People have different lives than you. If you don’t want to sacrifice time doing other things then don’t. But don’t whine when you can’t figure it out, or create a fantasy world were anybody’s domestic life is in shambles as a way of projecting your own inability to figure this out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) people list bedtime when you wake at an early hour, it really frames the response. Most working parents probably can’t get to be by 930 after getting home at 6, making dinner, activities for kids, and cleanup from the day. That’s only 3.5 hours.

2) OP was asking for working parents I think, but didn’t clarify in her post. It’s trivially easy to make work out time when you work full time, and then have 8 hours to do with what you will every day. I lived at the gym before kids.

3) bike/run commutes, I always like the idea, but I found the packing of a change of clothes and gear to shower at work ate almost as much time as a regular workout. I don’t think this adds any efficiency but does help the planet

4) teaches, what are your butt in seat hours, like elem goes 9-3:50, is it 830-420?

I’m up by 4 am for a 5 am class or walk.I go to bed by 9. I’m a teacher. I have 2 kids. I will go to sleep before I do the dishes. Quit making excuses , you’re not more special than the rest of us.

Thanks, living in filth with a constant sink full of dirty dishes is your secret, now I understand. Not for me.

You come off as a judgy B. Enjoy your stroke or heart attack at 55 because a spotless sink was more important than your health.

Agreed, this person and others are not willing to sacrifice things that just don’t matter. Or they are making other choices. Nobody is saying abandon your kids on the side of the road, but this idea that you can’t find 45 minutes a couple of times a week is ludicrous. I have friends that alternate training for full distance triathlon with young children. Their kids are performing and functioning just fine. My wife isn’t into endurance sports, but does other things consistently. Our kids are also performing just fine, and might actually have the ability to navigate the world on their own some day, and may even find time to exercise. Crazy that idea.

triathlon widow is a thing, and I’m 100% your buddies are dumping the tasks on their wives, who probably has to bail on her career to keep life afloat.

Yet again, flinging baseless insults and making unfounded assumptions. Why do you people hate anyone more active than you? We get it, you're a martyr for your children. Congrats. Now stop insulting everyone else.

I ask for schedules and get “so and so is a triathlete” — two people working professional jobs and managing a multi child household, I just don’t see people getting in real workouts. Sure 45 min walking with kids after dinner or playing catch, but training for a triathlon? You either function on 5 hrs sleep or we skipping household work. Maybe they have a live in nanny who makes dinner, or a daily housekeeper, but for most dual working parents they isn’t the case.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) people list bedtime when you wake at an early hour, it really frames the response. Most working parents probably can’t get to be by 930 after getting home at 6, making dinner, activities for kids, and cleanup from the day. That’s only 3.5 hours.

2) OP was asking for working parents I think, but didn’t clarify in her post. It’s trivially easy to make work out time when you work full time, and then have 8 hours to do with what you will every day. I lived at the gym before kids.

3) bike/run commutes, I always like the idea, but I found the packing of a change of clothes and gear to shower at work ate almost as much time as a regular workout. I don’t think this adds any efficiency but does help the planet

4) teaches, what are your butt in seat hours, like elem goes 9-3:50, is it 830-420?

Why so many excuses? You just have to make time for a workout.

Nobody makes time other than God. Thanks for your helpful suggestion.

Everyone gives you suggestions and you swat them away. Or worse, you say "you must not have kids." Guess what, plenty of people who are at least as busy as you find time to workout. You could to, but you CHOOSE not to. Make a different choice or stop whining.

There are a lot of assumptions and silly decisions in this thread.

Like the assumption that anybody “full time employed” must have 8 hours of free time a day. Nonsense. People marathon train while being an associate at a big law firm in their first couple of years all the time.

The other silly thing is this idea that you have to cede all your free time to your children, particularly when they are in high school and should be figuring their way on their own. They will need to do that eventually.

Like you say. It’s all about choices. Everybody can find at least 45 minutes a day. It’s not magic. You just delete something else or expect somebody else to do something, lose some compensation, etc….

+1

Really important lesson, couldn’t agree more

Who the F is talking about high school students? OP has elementary kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) people list bedtime when you wake at an early hour, it really frames the response. Most working parents probably can’t get to be by 930 after getting home at 6, making dinner, activities for kids, and cleanup from the day. That’s only 3.5 hours.

2) OP was asking for working parents I think, but didn’t clarify in her post. It’s trivially easy to make work out time when you work full time, and then have 8 hours to do with what you will every day. I lived at the gym before kids.

3) bike/run commutes, I always like the idea, but I found the packing of a change of clothes and gear to shower at work ate almost as much time as a regular workout. I don’t think this adds any efficiency but does help the planet

4) teaches, what are your butt in seat hours, like elem goes 9-3:50, is it 830-420?

I’m up by 4 am for a 5 am class or walk.I go to bed by 9. I’m a teacher. I have 2 kids. I will go to sleep before I do the dishes. Quit making excuses , you’re not more special than the rest of us.

Thanks, living in filth with a constant sink full of dirty dishes is your secret, now I understand. Not for me.

You come off as a judgy B. Enjoy your stroke or heart attack at 55 because a spotless sink was more important than your health.

Agreed, this person and others are not willing to sacrifice things that just don’t matter. Or they are making other choices. Nobody is saying abandon your kids on the side of the road, but this idea that you can’t find 45 minutes a couple of times a week is ludicrous. I have friends that alternate training for full distance triathlon with young children. Their kids are performing and functioning just fine. My wife isn’t into endurance sports, but does other things consistently. Our kids are also performing just fine, and might actually have the ability to navigate the world on their own some day, and may even find time to exercise. Crazy that idea.

triathlon widow is a thing, and I’m 100% your buddies are dumping the tasks on their wives, who probably has to bail on her career to keep life afloat.

Yet again, flinging baseless insults and making unfounded assumptions. Why do you people hate anyone more active than you? We get it, you're a martyr for your children. Congrats. Now stop insulting everyone else.