Every time I feel like I’ve adjusted to the chaos and demands on my time that come with being an adult/husband/parent, somehow the universe still manages to find another layer to unleash.
My baseball-loving kiddo made our local travel team on top of little league this spring, and combined with my swim-loving kiddo, my wife and I have been going in three different directions every day of the week since March.
We’re on the tail end of the season now, so we survived it. We have completed our metamorphosis into those parents… the full-time uber drivers for our children.
Don’t worry, Tim.. only about 10 more years or something 😀 and you’re done (if ever).
To be honest, once their school & study work gets a bit more serious, the “extra stuff” gets a lot less busy, I’ve noticed
As someone without children, who has no wish to have children, I salute you for your efforts to continue the human species. In your honor, I will sacrifice a small bit of my overflowing free time to watch my nieces for an hour this weekend.
As someone without children who has no wish to have children, I sit here comfortable in my feeling of freedom and lack of stress.
Just you wait for Grandchildren, it’s ‘daBest’ 🙂
you’ll be fine…until you start being the driver for the whole team.
I had a similar problem with my son playing rugby. Training was an hours drive away, three times a week for three hours every session – so that was three nights wiped out. The games were almost always down in the south (I live in North Wales) which was a 4-5 hours trip each way, so frequently the weekend was a wipeout too. This had been going on for years, but my son passed his driving test 6 months ago, and so along with an extra 2 hours per from the commute to school, I now have my life back… Read more »
I salute you in sympathy as I get ready to take the youngest to her three hour gymnastics team practice. 🫡
Ah, Tim, you have no idea. You’ll do this for another decade or so, and then you’ll get a short break. Then your kids will reproduce. You’ll go to a whole new set of events, from sports to fashion to dance, and discover that the social mores have changed. (I was shocked and appalled when my kids’ junior teams didn’t even KEEP SCORE. I mean, what is the point if you’re not keeping score? For my grandkids, the rules say everyone plays, every position, every game, and they still don’t keep score.) The only advantage of Grandkids over Kids is that… Read more »
So… painfully…. relatable. Hang in there man, try to enjoy everything because it’s the details you’ll miss later. Maybe not all the driving.
We went from a single car family to buying a car this past weekend for nearly this same reason…
That looks like a nice rendition of a hypefire bat, which, as a fellow father with a baseball kid, I recognize quite well. At least you haven’t been asked to help coach the travel team, so you still have hope. Godspeed.
No, but I coach his Little League team, and do GameChanger for the travel team XD
GameChanger buddies! (also one of my jobs) ((so much better than DiamondKast) Have fun with it though, as I suspect when it ends we will miss this time with them.
*high five*
Yeah, I am 100% certain there will come a day I wish we had a game to take him to, or that he’d ask me to play catch.
There’s a purpose to it all. It’s so that you’ll actually WANT them to get thier driver’s licenses later.
After nearly 40 years I’m on the cusp of getting a car. So far it simply wasn’t needed. Public transport and a bike were all that was required. When I read these things I feel happy to live in a country where motorised vehicles are far from the only option to get around. “Hey kiddo, do you want to go to the hockey club for a 3h training session? There’s your bike you have been on for the last 5 years. There’s no traffic lights and nearly all bicycle paths are separated from the main road, so the chance that… Read more »
I’m glad my kids inherited my superb athletic abilities that were required to play Right Bench or Left Out on team sports. I don’t think I could handle travel team responsibilities. My son and I are in scouts. I don’t mind travelling to camp once a month or so (and hopefully he’ll finish his Eagle Scout soon). My daughter just did marching band.
I think I was like 13-15 when I decided to stay single whole my life becasue my parents and siblings were always telling me to stop playing video games (siblings wanted to play too, we had only one PC back then) so I figured out that it will be the same in the future if I have family: wife telling to stop, kids wanting to play too etc. So I stayed sinle and it worked 😀 I’m 43 now 😀 The fact that people in real life are too annoying to spend time with them helped 😀
My girl’s in ballet. Which right now is one class a week, but in future years will be two classes a week. And then there’s Point class, which is a separate class, for if they want to be on point, which if you’ve been dancing your whole life of COURSE you want to be on point. And so that’ll be three classes a week, except that when we’re close to the performances in December and May they’ll be one to two extra practices per week. And that’s just ballet alone, amongst several other shifting extracurriculars. There’s a Berenstain Bears book… Read more »
I can attest that you’ll finally get your free time back once your youngest gets his driver’s license. Your pocketbook may take quite the hit, though.
I’m on my last year of High School with my youngest. She’s in marching band, 2 choirs – including the top ensemble in the state, and on the archery team. July-January are crazy with marching band practicing 3 afternoons/week in the Arkansas heat, football games on Friday, and competitions on Saturday. All Region & All State for choir and band. Then just as the competitions end, archery starts up. At least she’s driving now, so that makes things a lot easier.
Wouldn’t trade it for anything.
I feel your pain! We have ~2 weeks of ball left, and then we get into the glorious two months that are sport-free. After that, hockey starts in September again. And then ball. And then summer again. etc. etc.
My oldest only has two years of hockey/ball left, and I’m really looking forward to the relaxed pace of only one kid in sports. He also gets his drivers license this fall, so, as long as I’m not coaching, I don’t have to go to all of his practices!
You know what you need? A THIRD KID!
Hi there! Congrats to your kid! Mine’s in the Hip Hop Competition since last year, winning (with her team and the other teams of their Dance school) one trophy after another – like, serious business. So… Monday is Taekwondo. Tuesday Skillz training + Acrobatics. Wednesday HipHop basics. Thursday Flex day (usually Taekwondo). Friday Xtra Skillz training (that is the competition name of the group btw). And we’re gone again come Saturday, next Competition. I wouldn’t wanna change anything here (school performances etc. not even mentioned here). I may lack more personal time, since this house needs some caretaking, too –… Read more »
Going to have to start drawing gray on your avatar soon.
Try going to a church … and to the bible group, and help here and there …
I did travel soccer for more than a decade, but my sons both play in college now. Totally worth the time investment.