Parents 2 on Team?!?!?

[Alibri]

Maybe I'm just looking for some support or advice, but yikes, I'm scared! My older (7) DD will likely move to L3 in January, and my younger (5) DD just recently made the mini-preteam. The coach told me she will probably move to the L2 team in January. I already have a reluctant husband, although with time for things to settle in and some coaxing, he usually ends up on board with gymnastics. Anyway, we both work full-time, and I know the hours for L2 and L3 are totally different. L2 practices 6 hours and L3 practices 9. I don't think many, if any of those hours will overlap! How many of you have multiple children on team? HOW do you make it work? I'm a little worried I am getting in over my head already, and they are just starting their team journeys! They both love gym and I want to make it work for them!

 

[John]

Sacrifice.

 

[LTB~Mom]

There are lots of families at my dd's gym with multiple kids on team - they seem to be at the gym all the time! Hopefully you live close enough to drop them off and go home during practice. Makes for longer meet weekends when they compete on different days. At least they're in the same sport going to the same gym - might be easier than driving them two different places and dealing with different competition/tournament weekends.

 

[Madden3]

Pray for the day they have the same (or very similar) practice times. For our boys that finally happened this year. Until then...yeah. It is really hard. The worst was the year they had meets the same weekends in totally different parts of the state- or different states! Ugh. Not sure I have every forgiven HC for that season.

Obviously lots depends on your individual situation- how far are you from the gym? Is carpooling a possibility? How flexible is your job? Can you comfortably leave the gym during practice? Etc.

But for perspective? What if they were in different time consuming activities? I know many families in such a boat...some with multiple kids in multiple competitive sports, or dance, or whatever. My friend has two different aged boys in comp soccer and every weekend during season they are driving all over the place to their different games. I mean unless your other kid is a couch potato and you are happy with that, you will be having to deal with some other activities somehow.

A big plus for both kids being in the same gym is that you only have one place to worry about. One place to volunteer, deal with drama, learn the ropes, and one bill to pay. Of course- it will be a BIG bill.

Also, get husband on board because it will help tremendously if you can divide and conquer.

 

[B&M's mom]

Budget, carpool, don't ever compare them and prepare to spend a lot of time at the gym or getting back and forth from the gym. It's doable but it was hard especially when one child had an easier time acquiring skills and moving through levels. I began to wonder if it was such a good idea to have both in the same sport.

 

[MuggleMom]

We have lots of family team girls at our gym. We have one family with a girl on 9 and a girl on 10 I cant imagine their tuition bill! My friend has two daughters on level 3 one who home schools and trains during the day one in public school who trains at night and a toddler in rec classes. Once again scary tuition bill and she is at the gym ALL THE TIME. Patience and a big check book that's my only advice, good luck

 

[Noideaaboutgym]

I have 2 kids who both compete 2 sports and both of us work full time (we have to, to pay!). It's hard, I schedule, plan, and plan again. One can be left at both sports as they are local, the other can be left at one but the other is an hours drive away and even with 4 hour practices it isn't worth going home. They don't do anything in the same place at the same time. The hardest part is eating, I also compete a sport so my training has to be fitted in and DH does his best to train his sport (although not competitively any more), my slow cooker is well used. I make packed meals for school and accompaniments for main meals before work so the 11 year old can feed herself when she gets home from the slow cooker and microwave. I can't eat and train so I eat at bedtime!

You have to want it to work to make it work, my kids have loads of friends who do nothing because their parents don't want the commitment.

 

[acam1103]

I have three kids on team and another on preteam. I also work full time and we live 40 minutes from the gym. It's REALLY hard (and expensive), I'm not going to lie. But they love it so we make it work.

 

[John]

I have three kids on team and another on preteam. I also work full time and we live 40 minutes from the gym. It's REALLY hard (and expensive), I'm not going to lie. But they love it so we make it work.

Thanks for sacrificing for you children.

 

[MILgymFAM]

There is a family at my DD’s gym that has four optionals on team. I’m amazed that anyone can afford that! When both my DDs were on different teams I was upfront with the coaches that both sides would have to bend a little to make it work. When they were on the same team the coach made their hours line up as much as humanly possible for me. He also gave us a great sibling discount.

 

[3gymgirlsmom]

I have 2 on the high school team (15 yr old just left the JO team) and now 9 yr old dd on the JO level 4 and 5 yr old dd on the Training team I have had 2 or 3 on team ever since we started Team track for 11 years ago

 

[UnoMas]

I once had 3 on team and I made it work. At one point, I was even working full time with 3 on the team (I had to in order to pay for it, lol!)

We did lots of carpooling and my girls often got there early or stayed late to work with other kids’ schedules so we could be a part of bigger carpools.

 

[profmom]

Check with your gym to see if there's a sibling discount.

This year, we have the happy distinction of schedules that require at least one to be in the gym six days a week, and my son has now added the occasional private on the seventh day. What's important to us is to find the time to be together as a family -- both end early on Friday nights, but we also eat a lot of late dinners together during the week. Thank goodness our gym has a culture of parents helping each other.

The good thing is that they really do support each other. My daughter has had a tough time the past few years with injuries, so she got in the habit of going to most of her brother's meets. There are things about the sport that they as athletes understand better than anyone else, and it's great sometimes to hear one of them encouraging the other. In the car ride home on days when they both work out, it's not uncommon that one will compliment the other on something that happened at practice.

Oh, and do plant the money tree now, and make sure you have a reliable vehicle.

 

[2gymmies]

We have several at our gym too - it seems that some families with multiple kids on team end up working at the gym in some capacity either to pay for it or to occupy time. I see parents cleaning, parents working the front desk and occasionally a parent that is able to teach preschool or Ninja class or after school care. I see lots of books being read. And the gym has free WiFi which is a plus.

 

[profmom]

YES!! I am going to estimate conservatively that I did around 1/4 of the research on my last solo book using the gym's wifi. (At that point they were mostly on the same days but the times didn't align very well.)

 

[Jenn's Jam]

Although I don't have 2 kids on Gymnastics team, I do have 2 kids on competitive teams.
My YDD (12) does 13hrs a week as an Xcel gold gymnast.
But my MDD (14) she does competitive dance and does 20+ hours a week.
( Both of these sports are very pricy so you do have to make some sacrifice money wise aswell )
Anyways, we do make it work although it does get hard as my hubby and I both work in the evenings aswell as he works in the day so my hubby usually takes her to gym and I usually pick her up. But luckily we have a neighbor who my YDD and their DD are very close and they are both in the same level/class at the same gym, so that does help.

So when in doubt car-pool it out!

 

[amiandjim]

We have 2 families in our carpool that have both a level 3 and a level 4. None of their practices are on the same days so they have gym 6 days a week....and it’s a 45-60 min commute to gym! We all make it work though.

 

[reluctant]

Maybe I'm just looking for some support or advice, but yikes, I'm scared! My older (7) DD will likely move to L3 in January, and my younger (5) DD just recently made the mini-preteam. The coach told me she will probably move to the L2 team in January. I already have a reluctant husband, although with time for things to settle in and some coaxing, he usually ends up on board with gymnastics. Anyway, we both work full-time, and I know the hours for L2 and L3 are totally different. L2 practices 6 hours and L3 practices 9. I don't think many, if any of those hours will overlap! How many of you have multiple children on team? HOW do you make it work? I'm a little worried I am getting in over my head already, and they are just starting their team journeys! They both love gym and I want to make it work for them!

Eventually they will be on the same schedule because they will both just be at the gym all the time.

 

[Sourkey]

My son is competitive but my girls are in developmental programs (I guess similar to pre-team?). The 4 year old is in WAG and the 7 year old is in Trampoline. We got a discount for having 3 in annual programs. My son is there 16 hours a week (M,T,Th,S), one girl is there Friday and the other Sunday. So, none of them are there on the same days.

We both work very demanding full time jobs but luckily we live close to the gym (12 min walk, 3-5 min drive).

It’s going to get worse next year when the 4 year old (who will be 5) has training during school hours. I don’t think we’ll be able to make that work.

 

[Muddlethru]

I hear you but you'll make it work. You’ll be surprised.