Parents How late is too late?

[Flippin'A]

Why not let the level threes work at the same time as the level twos instead of the level fours? This was a ridiculous decision on the part of the head coach (or whoever handles scheduling,) and they knew how old the girls were when they made it. More than just yawning in school and a lower reading score, we're talking about a safety issue if the girls are sleepy at practice. It sounds like you need to make it very clear to the coaches that unless they want to lose more gymnasts (which it doesn't sound like they can afford to) they need to make your children's well-being their top priority. Four out of six parents is more than enough to present a united front. Don't forget, you are the client and you have the power. Asking for age appropriate practice times and adequate rest is not unreasonable, and you should go in with a few ideas (full, structured Saturday practice, working with the level twos, etc.) that you can present as compromises. Be strong!

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Why not let the level threes work at the same time as the level twos instead of the level fours? This was a ridiculous decision on the part of the head coach (or whoever handles scheduling,) and they knew how old the girls were when they made it. More than just yawning in school and a lower reading score, we're talking about a safety issue if the girls are sleepy at practice. It sounds like you need to make it very clear to the coaches that unless they want to lose more gymnasts (which it doesn't sound like they can afford to) they need to make your children's well-being their top priority. Four out of six parents is more than enough to present a united front. Don't forget, you are the client and you have the power. Asking for age appropriate practice times and adequate rest is not unreasonable, and you should go in with a few ideas (full, structured Saturday practice, working with the level twos, etc.) that you can present as compromises. Be strong!

This.

Our gym 2 and 3 go together, 3s an extra day

4 and up the other days

They just have different groups broken up by skills.

 

[suebee]

FWIW, I think almost all gyms around me have one group or another practicing until 9:30. Most try to make that the highest levels, so that it’s the (hopefully) oldest kids. But due to coaching staff numbers, space and equipment, and rec classes, some group is practicing late every day.

You can certainly express your concerns to the gym and ask them to reconsider the groupings and the schedules, but if you do this, I think you also need to be thinking about what you’ll do if the gym says they cannot change the schedule and it is what it is.

I can say that I seriously thought about changing gyms when dd had late practice when she was young. I also know a couple of families who changed gyms for schedule reasons.

But at the same time, I was reluctant because I know that the gym schedule is always subject to change. And we have seen practice times change, like you have now, even mid-year, when there are coaching changes, etc. This was my concern about changing gyms for the schedule - maybe the new gym would also change their schedule, and it would not work for us either.

But are there other gyms nearby you can consider?

 

[duyetanh]

Omg.....I am sorry but that is way too late for a child that young, imho. Heck, we as parents are fading around that time. Geez....

 

[meganliz77]

Right now DD is practicing until 8:15 most nights. We have an hour drive home. She's 10 and I can tell you it is HARD. Our gym tries hard to structure the older/higher level girls later and the younger/lower levels earlier. But that doesn't always work out given where they are at level-wise. But at your DD's age, I know we wouldn't have been able to commit with those hours. My DD needs her sleep or she is a bear.

 

[gymyogimom]

I'd have her eat dinner on the ride home so she sleeps 930 pm (assuming a 20 minute drive home) and see if there's a way to adjust the morning wake up. I could never get my kids to sleep at 8 when it is light out. My 2nd grader goes to sleep at 10-1030 and wakes at 745 without issue. I don't know many kids who can wake up at 530 am and be able to make it to 9 pm.

 

[jessifrostR]

I agree with everyone who said 9pm is absolutely too late for her age. Adding in how early she wakes up, that’s not healthy at all.
Even the oldest highest levels at our gym are finished by 8:30pm.
Ask if they can restructure the practices to get out at 8:30 and add a normal Saturday practice. A lot of gyms do Saturday practices for all levels.
Also, is there anyway she can sleep a little later?
Can your work schedule be adjusted or can you pay a babysitter to come to your house in the morning for an hour to get her up for school and get her ready and bring her to school or the bus stop or whatever?

 

[bookworm]

I think it depends on the level....my girls trained until 9 pm pretty much from 1st grade on , but they were level 7 then and the athletes were generally older so it came with the territory so to speak. The thing that helped us was their school didn't start until 9 am so they could sleep in until about 8 am ...and this was for grades K-8.

I definitely wouldn't expect a level 3 kiddo to be practicing until 9 pm, no matter what the age. If sleep is a huge issue for the OP's child, I would be looking for a different gym with a schedule better suited to my child. Sleep deprivation and misery are not the goals of Level 3.

 

[gymyogimom]

If elementary starts at 8:30-9 am, and the commute is under 20-25 min, 9 pm is fine for me.

It is 11-12 hours between gym and school, most elementary school age kids need 10ish hours of sleep.
If the bus came at 7, would we ask that practice got out at 6 pm? Because that is 13 hours. Every kid is different but I think 530 am is too early to wake up in the morning for any kid, elementary or high school and then stay awake and working out into even the early evening.

 

[rebcoola]

I think that is to late for most kids. No one at our gym practices that late Optionals run from 3:30-7:30. Which does cause other problems for the occasional elementary student depending on what time school ends.

 

[bogwoppit]

When she has to wake up so early 9pm is just too late. If you cannot change wake up time, you sure cannot expect her to have more energy on less sleep. It is basic parenting math.

 

[MILgymFAM]

I’ve gotta say that I’m surprised so many team practices end so early. My DD is older, so time has never been a concern for us, but as she’s a low level for her age she has always trained with kids much younger. 8:30, 9:00, even 9:30 have all been common end-of-practice times for her over the years. Where we’ve lived many kids don’t get off school buses until 4 or 4:30, so kids really can’t start practicing very early either. I do think it’s a concern that’s worth addressing with the coaches, or even consider a new gym over (if it’s not temporary), but it wouldn’t have occurred to me that it is even outside the norm.

 

[gymyogimom]

A local dance studio ends classes at 9:30-9:45 one evening. If schools get out at 4, kids either have to get picked up from school or activities habe to start at 5 or later. Hard to get 2-3 rec classes in before 9...

 

[SMH]

Here, elementary schools go from 7:40-2:30, high school 8:30-3:30, and middle school from 8:45-3:45.
So the level 3/4 kids who are mostly elementary practice 4-7, and the middle/high school upper levels from 5:30-8:30. It gives both groups some time for snacks and homework after school, which I like. There are age exceptions but most fall within those lines.

 

[Alibri]

Again, thank you all so much for your input. There were so many complaints, the coach called a meeting between the parents, coach, and gym owner today. We will see what happens. The coach really is trying to be as flexible as possible, offering parents the option of cutting the late practices by an hour and ending at 8, and making up that time on Saturday. My concern with this is that she will be making up regular practice time with mostly warm-up time in another level. I don't think the time will be as efficient. I know I can't have it all, and I know the gym can't bend to the desires of every parent, so I'll probably take this compromise. My husband is still not happy about even the 8pm end time.

Unfortunately, there isn't a ton of flexibility in the morning, although I can probably let her sleep maybe 15-20, maybe even 30 minutes longer. I drop her at daycare at 7:00 (leaving the house at 6:45). I am a teacher, and there is no flexibility with my start time. The daycare brings them to school for breakfast at 7:15 and school starts at 7:45.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Omg.....I am sorry but that is way too late for a child that young, imho. Heck, we as parents are fading around that time. Geez....

True story. There are days the 12 yo is up later than we are

 

[bookworm]

Where we’ve lived many kids don’t get off school buses until 4 or 4:30, so kids really can’t start practicing very early either. .

I don't think we've ever waited for the kids to get off the bus as a consideration for leaving for practice.....either it was me or whoever was driving to the gym for the carpool that picked the kids up at school and went directly to the gym so we were able to start practicing by 4 pm.

 

[MILgymFAM]

I don't think we've ever waited for the kids to get off the bus as a consideration for leaving for practice.....either it was me or whoever was driving to the gym for the carpool that picked the kids up at school and went directly to the gym so we were able to start practicing by 4 pm.

I went the route of picking my girls up once- twice a week for most of a school year. It was an absolute headache and would’ve been impossible if I had a job. To get out of the parking lot in under thirty minutes I had to show up almost an hour and a half early. They didn’t allow the kids to be signed out in the last thirty minutes of school either. So my choice was waste a huge hunk of time before they were done school or a huge hunk getting out of the lot- and then they were late anyway. Sometimes the school bus is the best/only option.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Our Xcel team goes that late on some days (last program added, and only way to fit them in and get equipment time!) and it was brutal for the younger ones. Our Xcel director has worked hard to get some sort of schedule change so the lower levels (=most likely containing younger kids) can get in there earlier. I know for me, a 9pm end time at age 7 would have been a dealbreaker...
I hope everyone in that group lives close to gym..?

 

[jenjean70]

I don't think we've ever waited for the kids to get off the bus as a consideration for leaving for practice.....either it was me or whoever was driving to the gym for the carpool that picked the kids up at school and went directly to the gym so we were able to start practicing by 4 pm.

Our middle school doesn't get out until 4:15....next year my son will not have the option of off campus PE for the 1st semester because our district requires 7th graders to take health. He will be late to gym 3 out of 6 days next semester.