Parents Early morning meets

[gymmommy123]

My dd has her first 2 meets coming up over the next few weeks. Both are being held about 2 hrs away from our house, and start at 8 a.m. For you parents of younger kids, do you find it's better to go the night before, and hope that your child actually goes to sleep at a reasonable time, or just wake up early and go? I am torn, if we go up the night before, we'll still have a 45 minute drive in the morning, and will be in a new place, sleeping on an air mattress at a favorite Auntie's house (always SO fun for an already excited 6 yr old) or just hope that you can get them to bed a little earlier in their own bed, and just wake up at 5 a.m. or so the morning of the meet. Unfortunately, I know without a doubt, she won't sleep in the car on the way there!! She will likely have practice the afternoon the day before the meet, so we can't just head up there early in the day.

 

[srsjbs]

For us, we would be beyond excited to have a meet within 2 hours close to home Ours are usually 4-8 hours away. For the 1 that is close to home, we leave early in the morning. My DD (6 years old) sleeps in the car on the way to the meet. Being in a hotel is not the same as home, plus it's exciting, plus all 6 of us are crammed in 1 room and no one sleeps as well. So in your position I would just stay home and leave early. Eat breakfast in the car.

Our meet next weekend is an 8 hour drive. We leave Thursday, because DD competes Friday morning. *Praying for good roads!*

 

[krisnkids]

My general rule is if its over an hour drive and we pull 8am slot then we do a hotel. Gymmies have to be there 15 minutes before hand so that's 7:45. Drive is 2 hours; give an extra 15 minutes for getting lost gotta leave at 5:30. Gotta get gymmie up; do hair; eat; be silly because she is so excited, do you really want to wake her up at 5? Will she function at 5? 6 year olds need 10 hours of sleep, will she go to sleep the night before her first meet at 7?

 

[lhmom]

We've always gone up the night before for the 8AM meets, except to the one that was 30 minutes away. DD does much better when I don't have to get her up really early. Also , we had instances where families who came up the day of the meet got stuck in unexpected traffic and arrived late. To me, it's better peace of mind to have the drive out of the way the night before. Even if your gym is practicing, I think most coaches will understand if you want to leave the night before. Good luck to her!!

 

[2G1B]

yup, if it is an hour or more away and we are 8:00 we head over for a hotel the night before and stay in a hotel. Sometimes I just take the kid (or kids) that compete then and my husband comes over with the other kids aiming to get there when competition actually starts.

A few weeks ago I didn't do this and regretted it. I didn't do it because I had just google mapped from my town to the town of the meet - not address to address. that was supposed to be 37 minutes. We were running a little late that morning. I still had 45 minutes to get there (but that was to get there, due to morning drama I ended up aiming to get there for the start of warmups, not the 15 minutes early). It ended up taking something like an hour and 20 minutes to get there. My poor DD had like 10 minutes of the warmups. It was her worst meet yet. I felt horrible about it and really kicked myself for 1) not getting the real directions beforehand and 2) not getting a hotel.

All of mine have done well with the hotels the night before. They all understand that the reason for the hotel is so that they get enough sleep and not so that they can play.

Tonight might be a different story though. We have a meet that is a 45 minute or so drive away and have to be there at 7:45. It is that boys, so at least I don't have to do hair first. But, my mom lives about 5 minutes from the meet. So we are sleeping at her house. But one of DS's team mates is going with us. I'm really hoping the boys will settle down and go to sleep and not think it is one of their normal sleep overs.

 

[Quadqueen]

We had a meet two hours away and a 7:45 a.m. start time a few weeks ago. I opted to just get up early and go that morning. DD is 9, and not used to sleeping in a hotel, so I figured trying to get her to go to bed a tiny bit early would leave her more rested than not sleeping well in a hotel.

She will never sleep in the car on the way after I have to do her hair and have her eat something, but she usually does fine. She does hit a wall by late evening though!!

 

[MaryA]

If you were planning to stay in a hotel 5 minutes from the meet, that would be one thing, but if the choice is sleeping in your own bed and being 2 hours away vs sleeping on an air mattress and still being 45 minutes away, I think I might pick my own bed. Any chance that, if you just pile DD into the car in her pajamas once you're all ready to leave, leaving enough time to get her dressed and do hair once you get there, she will sleep? (note: a parent on DD's team did this once... carried her DD out to the car in her jammies, and forgot to pack shoes for her... Don't forget the shoes!) Good luck!

 

[2G1B]

If you were planning to stay in a hotel 5 minutes from the meet, that would be one thing, but if the choice is sleeping in your own bed and being 2 hours away vs sleeping on an air mattress and still being 45 minutes away, I think I might pick my own bed. Any chance that, if you just pile DD into the car in her pajamas once you're all ready to leave, leaving enough time to get her dressed and do hair once you get there, she will sleep? (note: a parent on DD's team did this once... carried her DD out to the car in her jammies, and forgot to pack shoes for her... Don't forget the shoes!) Good luck!

This is what my parents did with me for swim meets when I was a kid. We often had to leave between 4:00 and 5:00 in the morning.

Although, hair wasn't a major issue for swim meets. ;-)

 

[kayjaybe]

I agree with Mary A. You're only cutting a bit more than an hour off the trip and sleeping in uncomfortable arrangements. I'd drive in the AM.

And perhaps you can convince her to just do a simple ponytail rather than fancy hair. That will save time. That is what dd will be doing next weekend for an 8 AM meet (although that one is only an hour away.)

 

[Ariekannairb]

We were up and out of the house by 5:30am this morning and will be again next week. I let her know in advance that she would be hitting the bed early and she had the option to sleep on the way to the meet, though didn't. I made her wash her hair the night before and we put it up the way it would be fixed for the meet over night so that it would dry. This morning it took me about 3 minutes to smooth it out and gel it down.

We are pretty tired (we homeschool and getting up early is not something that happens here lol!), but she did well and I am having them all take it easy the rest of the day.

 

[Committed]

It would depend where we were driving. If I had to drive 2 hours, over the mountains.....I would leave the night before. If it were just freeway driving on flatland, I would probably do the drive in the morning. DD is a "morning person" and does just fine with early wakeup times- plus she sleeps in the car easily.

Plus, like some PPs said, if you still had to drive 45 minutes in the morning, I wouldn't bother.

 

[KimmeeA13]

We have our first meet that is any significant (for us) distance away coming up next weekend. She is supposed to start warmups at 8:15 a.m. in a town that is an hour and a half away, so we opted to go the night before and stay in a hotel. My girl is only 8 and is not at her best in the morning, so we definitely do not want to get up at the crack of dawn to go. We also have to consider our other daughter (age 12) as well. And we're going to be adventurous: Our hotel has an indoor pool and after we meet the other team members' families for dinner, we fully intend to take advantage of that pool. She'll sleep better once she works off some nervous energy!

 

[curlymomof3]

Just wanted to add something about the hair thing. I was nervous about Dd's hair for her first meet and her wise coach told me that if I did certain hairstyles the night before and used enough hairspray and gel it would save time and stress in the morning. I have found that a few French braids or the spiderweb hairstyle with a lot of elastics covered by a hair net looks fine in the morning. I think I have even gotten away with doing 2 simple ponytails the night before; with enough gel and hairspray anything with hold (don't forget the hair net or shower cap to sleep in too).

 

[Iwannabemargo]

suddenly living in a small country has lots of benefits ! 8 hours travelling takes me to France

'Margo

 

[gymmomtoo]

With an early start time and two hour drive I would definitely stay over the night before

 

[Ariekannairb]

Maybe it is because I live in Texas and everything is 2 hours away, but that drive just doesn't seem like a big deal to me LOL. It could also be because I am super cheap and the thought of paying for a hotel for such a "short" drive makes me cringe!

 

[gymmommy123]

Thanks everyone for your responses. We live in a warm, dry, climate and the drive is nothing but flat, 75 mph highway, almost the ENTIRE drive. We are leaning towards leaving in the morning. If we leave the night before, the a.m. drive from my sisters house is heavy traffic the whole way, making me feel we'd have to leave by 6:45 a.m., to give us an hr to arrive, and a few minutes to find the place. If we leave from our house, it's highway all the way, with very little traffic. Really only the savings of 1 hr in the morning. It's a drive we do ALL the time... The only concern, is on the RARE chance the entire interstate gets shut down, then we'd be out of luck and miss the whole meet. In 10+ yrs of doing that drive, it's only happened twice, but both times, we were stuck sitting there for 3 or 4 hrs, uugghh.

 

[curlygirls]

We normally go the night before for an 8 am start time that is more than 2 hours away.

Given your specific situation, I think I would go in the morning.

 

[Mo's Mom]

We would definitely stay overnight at a hotel near the meet. My dds would not do well waking up so early. However, even at local (within 1 hour) meets with 8am starts I still do their hair the night before. There may be a few fly-aways the next morn, but the braids generally stay in well and then I can just spray & tuck in the morning.

 

[gymmommy123]

Staying at a hotel isn't an option, unfortunately, for this meet. The host hotel (closest to the meet) is over $300/nt. The further away ones are over $100/nt, and not very nice. The best we can do, is stay at my sisters house, but they have no guest room, so it's couches and air mattresses on the floor, with dd (6 y/o) and my ds (4 y/o). Not ideal... It's so hard, when you don't even know what day or time you're competing at, until right before the event. You can't even book a hotel ahead of time for a lower price :-(