Early early early!

[Tally Ho]

DD is 6 and is competing her first level 6 friendly next weekend, only problem being her registration time is 8am and the competition is at least an hour away! Anyone got any good tips or been there done that moments to deal with this early morning competiton

 

[Clover]

Honestly, if it were me, I'd get a hotel room close to the competition. Of course, my DD is NOT a morning person, so that extra sleep really makes a difference. Also, I always stress out driving distances right before a meet. I always worry that there will be a traffic accident or something that will delay us, so we end up leaving REALLY early. If staying the night before won't work for you, try to do as much as you can in the car on the way - hair, eating breakfast, etc. That way your DD gets a bit more sleep.

 

[Deleted member 15064]

Definitely depends on the kid but we've never done a hotel room for local (3 hr radius) meets, even with 8:00 am start time.

Sometimes we just put her in the car @ 4am all sleepy, and got her ready at the meet upon arrival. (hair, leo).

Sometimes we got ready at home first.

She was always perky & excited by time we got to the meet.

Now she says morning meets are her favorite.

In fact, the few we've had later in the day were difficult to stay excited for. It's almost as if the adrenaline upon waking either wore itself down during the day waiting, or squirted out in weird ways by time she got out on the floor.

 

[gymboymom]

Ds doesn't sleep well in hotels so I have decided if we don't need to leave before 5:30 or so (and I don't have to drag everyone) we just get in the car in the am and go. I pack breakfast in the car. He'll get dressed in the car when we get there. However, I don't have to do meet hair. That would probably change things for me. And I always leave atleast an extra half hour incase, I hate the rush of worrying we will be late. Good luck!

 

[bogwoppit]

Been there and done that, and much worse. We did four years of meets with 6:30am arrival times an hour away. Plus they were all in the depths of winter.

We tried everything, hotels close by in the end were not the best as nobody got a good nights sleep/

Do hair the night before, we did a spider web type thing that stays in well and just pulled into a pony tail/

Pack good food into a cooler and stop for hot chocolate, bagels and coffee along the way.

Have a blanket in the car to wrap the gymmie up in.

It is certainly a challenging time for a meet, but everyone is tired!

 

[gymmiemom]

For a meet that close we would just opt to sleep at home, we stay home if its less than 3 hours away. My DDs favorite hairstyle for meets is a simple headband braid across the front of her hair pulled into a pony tail. So I do the braid the night before and add tons of hairspray/gel. Then when she wakes up I just have to pull it into a ponytail.

I pack breakfast the night before and put it in the car (bagels w/cream cheese, granola bars, fresh fruit, juice boxes) so literally all we have to do is get up and get in the car to leave.

I actually like when she gets the early morning sessions even if it requires a hotel stay because that leaves the rest of the day for travel home in the daylight.

 

[Tally Ho]

Thanks everyone, think I will try putting her straight into the car and do the rest on the way!

 

[GymBee97]

DD is 6 and is competing her first level 6 friendly next weekend, only problem being her registration time is 8am and the competition is at least an hour away! Anyone got any good tips or been there done that moments to deal with this early morning competiton

an hour away I would just get up early and drive it. It would also depend on the roads and weather I would have to drive on or in. more than an hour away or bad weather I would look for a clean but cheap hotel that has a breakfast included.
L6 and L7 seem to be the levels for that early morning time so start getting use to it.

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

What is Level 6 friendly? Does it mean nonsanctioned? When we have a meet only an hour away we always drive the day of. Just get her to bed early and get up and go in the morning!

 

[GymBee97]

if you use the cheap super hold hair spray you can do the hair the night before and even after sleeping on it - it will look like you just did it but you have to remember to use a lot think plastic head LOL. I've done a bun the night before clipped it and sprayed it she slept in it and it looked just fine in the am. Just a few whisps to re clip

 

[2G1B]

I'm not a morning person and neither are my kids. And all of us sleep fine in hotels (they have grown up traveling a lot, they can sleep anywhere). So for us, anything around an hour or more we get a hotel for if we have a morning start time. If it is like 11:00 or later (none ever seem to start at 10:00), then we just drive the day of if it is an hour.

We have one for DS this year that is about 2.5 hours and we will be getting a hotel for that one. A few weeks ago we had one that was an hour - hour and fifteen minutes away and one DD had to be there 8:00 Saturday morning, the other 8:00 Sunday morning. We did a hotel.

For hair, I have almost always done it before we leave. Last week we had a comp at a (physically) small gym and I wanted a decent seat, so decided to get to the gym at 7:20 to get a seat. Since that was 40 minutes before warmups, I just did DD's hair once we got there. I kind of liked it that way, no worries of it messing up in her car seat.

 

[Faith]

What is Level 6 friendly?

In the uk they don't officially compete WAG until level 5, the year they turn 8. Many clubs and regions will organise level 6 (for 7 year olds), and sometimes even level 7 ( for 6 year olds).

It'll still be a fairly formal comp, but it'll be like an invitational, with its own rules as there are none set by british gymnastics for that age group.

Eta- good luck!

 

[OzZee]

We just did a 7am warm up (6.45 arrival). And have done them in the past.
Breakfast pre packed. Everything ready to do. I get up and shower (I do not function in the morning at all without a shower, well actually was barely functioning when I got there, lol) then got dd up, threw her in the shower for a couple of minutes, into leo and then to the car.
Hair etc done when we get there (I'd rather be sure I was there on time that waste time faffing on hair etc at home)
The shower really seemed to help her.

 

[Tally Ho]

What is Level 6 friendly? Does it mean nonsanctioned? When we have a meet only an hour away we always drive the day of. Just get her to bed early and get up and go in the morning!

Our county does level 6 for 6/7 ready to compete WAG the year they turn 8, the competiton will be based on county level 6 rules but friendly competiton just basically means an invitational.

 

[raenndiva2009]

With me, I only stayed in a hotel once for this year's state meet. It was in York, PA, so about 4-5 hours away. We (me and my parents and siblings) stayed the night and went to the meet the next day. I will do the same next year.

 

[mobeans]

I would opt to get a good nights sleep her own bed. Id shower her the night before and put in a braid or spider web so the front is done. It will stay if wet and sprayed down before bed. Have the bag, drinks, snacks all ready to go the night before! Id even prepare breakfast to eat in the car on the way. If it were my dd I'd make her a hard boiled egg and a mini muffin (I make homemade healthy vegan ones).

Good luck!

 

[mobeans]

I'm not a morning person and neither are my kids. And all of us sleep fine in hotels (they have grown up traveling a lot, they can sleep anywhere). So for us, anything around an hour or more we get a hotel for if we have a morning start time. If it is like 11:00 or later (none ever seem to start at 10:00), then we just drive the day of if it is an hour.

We have one for DS this year that is about 2.5 hours and we will be getting a hotel for that one. A few weeks ago we had one that was an hour - hour and fifteen minutes away and one DD had to be there 8:00 Saturday morning, the other 8:00 Sunday morning. We did a hotel.

For hair, I have almost always done it before we leave. Last week we had a comp at a (physically) small gym and I wanted a decent seat, so decided to get to the gym at 7:20 to get a seat. Since that was 40 minutes before warmups, I just did DD's hair once we got there. I kind of liked it that way, no worries of it messing up in her car seat.

I tend to do DD's hair once there as well, except for the front. That way her bun is sleek and ready to go. Plus we are early birds and always get to comps way early--dd's type A personality wouldn't have it any other way

 

[stillgotmyleotard]

For early starts coupled with distance, we have always just got a cheap hotel close by. They are usually full of competitors though and it is something quite different for my daughter so she has always been too excited to sleep. But it has certainly helped my stress-levels because I'm a biit of a control freak when it comes to punctuality.