Fall is in and school as started. And with school comes homework. Add this to the sport activities of your kids and the fact that there are still only 24 hours per day and you come to the conclusion that you need to cut off some of the activities. Believe me, I also had that thought. DO NOT GIVE UP THAT EASY! I truly believe that busy kids are also well organized kids and are usually more successful in class. Because they are organized, because they have other activities with friends beside school, because they can accomplish themselves in an activity that they like, they become positive kids who believe in themselves and that is reflecting in there school results. So this week, my mission is to help you with this issue. And this issue is called Time Management. Time management for the children, time management for the parents also. I will give you some tips and tricks to help you manage your family busy schedule based on my own experience and also from talking with hundreds of parents in the same situation.
First, let me give you an example from my own situation. I have 3 daughters who are doing gymnastics. My older daughter, 14, is training 24 hours per week, 5 times a week. My second one who will be 10 in 3 days (happy birthday Kat!), is training 16 hours per week, 4 times a week. And finally the last one, 4 years-old, is jumping on the mats 2 times a week ;-)) And of course, even if they are all in the same club, the training hours do not match. My youngest is not even in the same gym (the club has 2 gyms in the city). And you want to know the irony of it all? I'm the president of the club and I can't even get a favorable schedule ;-)))
So, how do my wife and I manage all that? I must confess that it is a little bit easier for me since I have my own business and my office is at home. But I do share with a lot of other parents who have daily jobs in the office or at the shop and I will also give you some of their management tricks.
Let's start by a typical Wednesday which is our busiest day.
Daughter #1 is training from 3:30 to 7:30 PM in the main gym
Daughter #2 is training from 5:00 to 9:00 PM also in the main gym
Daughter #3 is from 5:30 to 7:30 PM in the satellite gym
Daughter #1 finishes school at 2:50. She is studying in a private high school which is about a 15-minute drive from home. In the morning, during rush hour, it takes 45 minutes but that's another story. At 2:50, there is no traffic ;-))
So at 2:30, I prepare her gym bag with the leotard she chose herself in the morning (don't forget that she is 14 and whatever leotard daddy will choose, it will NEVER be the right one :-DDD), prepare a little snack and a bottle of cold water. NEVER forget water for all sports activities. It is very important especially for young children. What we do is put some bottled water in the freezer so by the time they get thirsty, the ice as started to melt and the water will stay cold for the complete training. Then I pick her up at school and drive her to the gym which is, luckily, only 10 minutes from the school.
In the meantime, daughter #2 finishes school also at 2:50 but she is not in the same school as her older sister. It is a public primary school which is about a 10-minutes walk from home. By the time I am back home, at around 3:30, she had taken her snack and watched TV. It is now time for homework. She has plenty of time to finish her homework (usually between 30-45 minutes) while I prepare her dinner. At 4:30, my wife arrives from work, picks up daughter #2 and drives her to the gym for her 5:00 training. Meanwhile, I go get daughter #3 at the nursery and drive her to her 5:30 gym class. Then, I get back home, relax a little bit (have a beer :-D) and start preparing dinner for the rest of the family.
My wife loves to stay at the gym to watch our daughters, talk with other moms... you know, do moms stuff ;-))) At 7:30, she goes at the other gym to drive daughter #3 back home while daughter #1 is getting back with another parent. Everyone except daughter #2, is home at 8:00 where we have dinner. Daughter #2 finally gets back around 9:30 PM with another parent. Little snack then bedtime. For daughter #3, she usually doesn't have a lot of homework to bring home because she is part of a special program at school which gives her the opportunity to have free time during the day for studying.
And then, and only then, me and my wife have some free time for ourselves. A nice glass of wine and... we usually fell asleep on the couch because we are too exhausted ;-)))))
As you can see, it can get very hectic. I showed you our busiest day but during the other days, we are the parents who are doing the drive back home of the other girls. And THIS is the number 1 tip I can give you: get help from other parents. You are not alone in this. Unless your kid is praticing a very unorthodox activity (i.e. Big Foot hunting) there are usually other kids participating ;-) We all have our schedules and we all share the same time management problems. So why can't we help each other? Talk with 2, 3, or even 4 parents from the group and manage a monthly co-conveyance schedule. Why monthly? Because everyone know in advance when they are doing the taxi avoiding the last minute phone calls and the 'is it my turn?' questioning. With a monthly schedule, you also have the flexibility to adjust to holidays, changes, and all. You can also put the coaches into contribution. After all, they HAVE to be there ;-)
So, tip #1: co-conveyance
Tip #2: early preparation. I made a joke earlier about my daughter's leotard. But it is a fact that it saves me a lot of time when all of her clothing is ready and that I just have to pick it up. Have you ever tried to find clothing in a teenager's bedroom? Talk about a mission impossible! If your boy is playing football, have him prepare his stock the evening before or the morning before. Teach your kids to empty their sport bag after each training. That way, you won't have to wash leotards, shorts, or jock-straps at the last minute. Skates need to be sharpened? Do it right AFTER the training or the game so you won't have to run or arrive early the next time. All these little things can save you a lot of time and once the children are getting use to it, it becomes part of their routine and they do it automatically. This is called organization.
Tip #3: make a family calendar and put it on the refrigerator door or on the wall so that the whole family can see it. I found out a pretty nice family scheduler that is called
ScheduleUs. You can put a different color for every member of the family and have a quick overlook of who is doing what today, this week, and this month. Because, you know, we get use to regular trainings. But when games, tournaments, and specials events are added... hello headaches ;-)
Tip #4: have family fun! If you are stressed out by the family busy schedule, if you are complaining all the time then soon your kids will do the same thing. And soon, it will be a pain in the ... for all of you. And the first thing you will know is that your kids won't want to participate in any organized activity anymore. I am not suggesting to pretend to have fun here. No. You can have real fun if you follow my tips because you will run less, you will have time to stay at your child's activity and watch him/her. You can socialize with the other parents. make new friends, and so on. You can talk about the activity with your child on your way back home, stop for an ice cream or a soda. You can turn a week-end tournament into a family week-end vacation. Kids love to stay at the hotel even if it is in the town next door ;-)
Overall, take the time to organize your season with your kids. You will all benefit from it. You will be less stressed and they will enjoy their sport even more. And without knowing it, they will learn to plan and manage their time and this, my friend, is a priceless knowledge for their adult life.
---------------------------------
