Parents Always late to practice

[GymnastMomX2]

As someone who hates hates hates being late to anything, this drives me absolutely nuts. Practice is 4pm-8pm every weeknight but Tuesday, DD doesn't get out of school until 4:05, which means if she hurries out and I found a good/sneaky parking spot we are pulling out of there at 4:10 at the absolute earliest, the gym is a 12 min drive, she does her hair in the car, but still has to get dressed once she gets to the gym. So even on the best days shes at least 25 min late. I'm pretty sure starting next year in 7th grade she can get out of PE in school so maybe I can pick her up early? That doesn't help this year though. Its so frustrating, she says shes not the only one who is late everyday either, and they all rush through warmups/stretching. Anyone else deal with this? Why would the gym start a practice at a a time when school hasn't even gotten out yet!?

 

[2G1B]

Is she in a group with younger kids? I know for us, at compulsory levels, the gym sort of sets the schedule around elementary schedules, which are earlier.

 

[skschlag]

I know our gym has some schools like this. It serves at least 4 school districts as well as private and charter schools. So they can't accommodate everyone or all practices would have to be at the same time. So they tolerate the kids who are late due to school. For the past 4 years, DS has just dressed in the car, and run into practice. This year he doesn't start until 6 and gets out at 9, which has a whole different set of problems.

 

[GymnastMomX2]

Is she in a group with younger kids? I know for us, at compulsory levels, the gym sort of sets the schedule around elementary schedules, which are earlier.

Nope, shes in the group with the optionals, so there is a range of elementary, middle and high school kids, but mostly middle/high school. I think most of the girls in her actual group are in middle school and are all late every day. Its like we are all paying for 2 more hours of practice each week that they aren't going to. We should get a discount (haha, yea right!)

 

[2G1B]

that would frustrate me. I'd talk to the coaches about it being an obvious scheduling issue. For us, next year my DD starts middle school. Our gym tries to get everyone out by 8:30, so the latest they can really start practice is 4:30. I don't know what we are going to do since middle school gets out at 4:15 and we live 30 - 45 minutes from the gym... But it isn't as much of an issue for the kids that live near the gym. Plus, the gym is actually in a different school system where the middle school kids get out at I think 4:00, so it makes sense. But if it was nearly all of the girls on the team (not just my DD) who couldn't get there I'd expect the gym to adjust the schedule.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

We have the same problem at my dd's gym, although she is only in first grade and is in a much lower level. Practice starts at 4:00, school gets out at 3:45. I get in carpool lane 30-40 minutes early so I can be near the front, but I still don't leave the school until 3:50 at the absolute earliest. 15 minutes drive to practice, plus she needs to change when she gets there and we are at least 10 minutes late every practice. She's the only one that is late in her group as the other kids either go to a school with an earlier schedule (we live in a large district with multiple bell schedules) or somehow they check out early which our school absolutely does not allow. It is what it is. I told the coach before she joined that we were going to be late and they said it was okay, but I don't like it at all. I hate the rush and just the feeling of always missing something. It's not going to change though and in fact the schedule a couple of levels up starts even earlier at 3:30.

 

[Mrs. Puma]

Sounds like you're doing the best you can! That would drive me crazy too, but we can only do what we can do. I think it speaks volumes that you're willing to scramble like that to get her there as quickly as you can. Good job, super mom!

 

[gymmomtoo]

They probably don't want to make it any later because then practice would go that much later. Frustrating to be late so frequently (drives me crazy too), but at least you have a good excuse and the coaches know why she's late.

 

[1canadiangymmom]

3:30 start here, most families pull their kids early from school, kind of expected.

 

[MILgymFAM]

I completely understand! YDDs gym is kind of far from us, and they base their practice schedules around their home school district. Since their district has half days every Wednesday, they start team practices well before YDD even gets out of school. It kept her off team, officially, for months. I have now arranged for her school to dismiss her early every Wednesday, but I know that's not ideal.

Also, ODD and YDD practice the same day, 40 miles apart, with a 45 minute break in between. Thanks to Bay Area traffic I always feel stressed and rushed, and ODD is often late to practice.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

That would drive me bonkers!!!
That said, our gym is understanding, BUT also conceded to change the practice time for certain groups once they realized almost none of the kids in it would make it on time. Here, the older optional girls are expected to get PE credit from gym and thus be able to leave school early. The younger optional girls don't have that as a possibility (school district here very strict about PE in elementary and middle school) so the gym decided to start practice a little later for that group.
We have a couple of girls who drive for 1hr+, they are understandably a little late most days! plus a couple of girls who depend on rides to gym who are also consistently a couple of minutes late. Our latest school district let's out at 3:45 (elementary school) and compulsory practice starts at 4... There were a couple of girls who were 10-15min late to every practice last year.
Being let out of school after 4pm sounds so late to me.... Do you at least get to start later too?

 

[l.c.o]

I feel your pain. This year, DD's gym offered us two "options" for practice. Either she starts at 3:30 and enjoys a four day schedule, or starts at 4:30 and goes five days. DD's school dismisses at 3:53, and as DS is at another school which dismisses at 3:40, add in a dash of his dawdling, often a missing item he runs back into school for, plus traffic, I'm usually one of the last cars to pick up DD and it's easily after 4pm before she's in the car.

We started the school year with the 4:30 schedule. She hated it. She'd arrive and see half of her teammates already working out and get furiously jealous. Plus one teammate goes to her school and was attending her earlier group. Plus, the 4:30 girls were apparently told that they could warm up and join the 3:30 girls as soon as they arrived (DD and I were never told this). DD could start at 4:25 on a good day. So, DD then saw all but one other 4:30 girl starting around 4:00. She was so frustrated she was talking about quitting - she felt it was unfair (she was also suffering from a mild injury at the same time).

Trying to cut to the chase, we've recently begun pulling DD from school 30 minutes early three days per week. She's still about 10-12 minutes late, but with the classroom schedule, I just can't pull her any sooner. She's happier, but also well aware that middle school starts next year and we're out of luck. She'll truly be lucky to make the 4:30 practice on time. So, this is a temporary bandaid. While we may get lucky and be able to arrange gym for last period one year, I highly doubt we'd get that lucky more than once. We have some big decisions to make for next year.

Anyway, a personal rant: I'm particularly frustrated because part of the reason we moved DD to this gym was because she had to dismiss early in order to get to practice at her old gym. For me, education should be the highest priority so this kills me. In trying to think positively, though: at least we got a year respite?

Good luck and know you aren't alone.

 

[Anna's_Mom]

That would drive me crazy too. DD started middle school this year and we were able to get her a PE waiver based on the hours in the gym. But she has to go every day to make the contract work, which I would prefer not to do. Our gym has five days where they offer practice (soon to be six) and girls need to do 3 or 4 days depending on level. Practice start times vary between 3:45, 5 and 6:30, plus Saturday afternoon. So far everyone has been able to make it work but it would be really hard if practice was always the same time -- we have girls coming from multiple school districts too. Since I don't get home until about 5, I have a car service that takes her to practice the two afternoon sessions each week. We actually choose DD's school based on their schedule so that the only thing she misses by leaving early is PE, which seems fair.

Maybe your gym would consider varying session times? Otherwise, it seems like you are doing the best you can.

 

[Firefly]

Yowzas you guys get out of school late! My kids get out (elementary) at 2:30. Middle school in our town is out at 2:15! Stinks to have to get rolling so early in the morning, but we're lucky enough have time to go home, do homework and eat before practice. Sorry you're facing such scheduling challenges

 

[MILgymFAM]

Yowzas you guys get out of school late! My kids get out (elementary) at 2:30. Middle school in our town is out at 2:15! Stinks to have to get rolling so early in the morning, but we're lucky enough have time to go home, do homework and eat before practice. Sorry you're facing such scheduling challenges

I miss those hours- had them at our old district. Now we are out the door by 7 and still not home till 4. Boo!

 

[gymmomx2]

3:30 start here, most families pull their kids early from school, kind of expected.

Same here, except practice starts at 3:00pm for us.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Can you get her out of school just a little early on practice days?

 

[COz]

If they won't allow her out early, would she have an understanding teacher who might allow her a toilet break in the afternoon.
Perhaps she could quickly put her leotard on under her clothes, allowing her just to strip off once she's at the gym?

 

[Momof2]

My kids are probably always the last ones to arrive to gym class. They are 1 hour and 15 min late for class. The reason is because the county that the gym is in gets out of school around 2:30 and my kids who are in a different county get out at 4:00. I feel my kids have a disadvantage because of the amount of class time they miss but nothing I can do about it and they will not be taken out of school early for gym class.

 

[3LittleGymmies]

We had this issue and I contacted the principal about an "alternate dismissal procedure" for my daughter and we were granted this. Her school (elementary) normally sends kids to the gym for dismissal at 3:30, bus kids get on the bus at about 3:45, and car riders come out at about 3:55. We were always rushing to gym since we have quite the commute and practice is at 5. So I now sign her (and her gymmie sister) out of the office at 3:20 on practice days. They only miss 10 minutes of learning time, and a lot of that is packing up anyway. I was surprised when the principal responded so positively and in support of their gymnastics. I am a little worried that it won't be enough time when the snow starts, but we'll just have to see how it goes. It's working for now and while some days we get to the gym barely on time (on time is 20 minutes early at their gym), some days we are there early enough for them to get some homework in.