Sports practice during dinner time

[basil]

DH signed DS up for this little league that practices 3x/week from 5-6:30. I am used to getting home around 4:45-5, cooking dinner from 5-5:30 and eating around 5:45 or 6 which is usually when DH gets home. Bedtime is at 8 and we start bedtime routine around 7:15. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed.

First I don’t understand how I am going to do without that 4.5 hours per week. I don’t know how I am going to cook a healthy dinner. My kids won’t eat crock pot stuff. I don’t want to do processed crap. And my own bedtime is about 8:30-9 so now I am going to be losing out on sleep if my kids’ bedtime gets pushed back but I can’t see how it isn’t if we don’t get home til 6:45.

How do people manage this?

[SnuggleBuggles]

Sandwiches, salads, wraps...
or prep really well and cook when you get home...
or make dh either go to practice or cook dinner.

Plenty of people grab ready to eat stuff too with no shame! Grocery store prepped food like rotisserie chicken, fast food, Subway/ sandwich shop...
They might even sell food some nights.


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[SnuggleBuggles]

I mean, this is just the norm for many of us. Yeah, you’ll have to adjust schedules. This practice schedule could be worse, like our soccer is 3x week 6-8pm. We eat first usually.



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[doberbrat]

Its all about priorities. Do you need to cook every night? I only cook 2-4x a week. Does your kid want to do baseball? The price might be eating crockpot meals on occasion. Do you HAVE to go to bed at 8:30 or is 9 -9:30 ok? If 8:30 is the priority, then ready to eat or less healthy might be the trade-off.

Personally, I cant fathom going to bed at 8:30! My kids would get dinner as we're usually sitting down to dinner then. But my idea of other people get out of the house WAY earlier than we ever can too.

[DualvansMommy]

This is why I always keep couple of different proteins on hand like grilled chicken DH throws on the grill every Sunday. so we have several to use/eat during that week as a stand alone with steamed vegs, on top of different salads we throw quickly, wraps (kids love that as they pick their own various toppings)

I always keep on hand from freezer several different batches of soup cuz DS1 lives on soup! it makes for easy to drink/eat out of thermos for kiddo to eat if no time at home. I'll be doing this ALOT this fall as DS1 will have practice 3x a week rest of next year that would over prime dinner time.

fish is something I do if we have 30 mins to cook/eat. Otherwise get DH to take your kids to practice if he's able as that's what we do here on some nights.

[georgiegirl]

So that’s pretty much life for anyone with (older) kids in sports. Practice is either during dinner hours or after dinner, in which case it ends very late. Today DD swims 4:30-6 and DS1 swims 6:30-7:30 . During the regular season, they don’t swim until 7PM, so we can all eat together, but then they swim until late at night. It’s life. Only DD practices during dinner time, and she will just eat a small meal before and after. She’s 13, so she can make herself a sandwich or heat up leftovers.

You DS is pretty young, right? Three times a week is a lot to disrupt the whole family if healthy, homemade meals are a priority. I often prep before hand, but in the summer, we do lots of sandwiches and salads. Those are easy to make ahead or make quickly.


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[specialp]

Yes, this is totally normal now, but I remember it being so overwhelming at first. We do not eat out often and aren't fans of most crockpot meals, but I learned what needs to be prepped ahead, reheats and freezes well, double batch meals that can feed for a couple days. You will have to be flexible on bedtimes and eating times. That's just the way it is. And you'll be in good company because most parents there are in the same boat.

[trcy]

I'd have food preped for practice nights, so all you have to do is heat it up. Soup is something you can make a big batch of and freeze. Then just pull it out of the freezer that morning. Or have sandwiches or salads those nights. Another option would be to make extra of whatever you are having on non practice nights and leftovers on practice nights.

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[basil]

The only sandwiches that DS will eat is PB&J or grilled cheese. And he has those often enough for lunches. He won’t eat soup either...and I don’t think he has ever eaten a salad in his life!

Most of our meals are seafood + veg + potato/rice. Salmon, haddock, shrimp, scallops. Sometimes chicken later in the week. Sometimes ground turkey burgers. I actually already prep vegetables over the weekend so they are ready to microwave and eat.

Tonight he ate a hard boiled egg and some carrots for a snack before his practice, but then wasn’t really even hungry for dinner I think because he was tired. Now it’s past 8 and he is still in the shower.

I know 8:30 is early but I usually wake up at 4:30 to exercise and my DS is usually up between 5:45-6 even if he goes to bed later. I often leave for work between 6:15-7, and we both are types that don’t do well on little sleep!

DS really loves baseball and I guess we will adjust to a new normal but I didn’t know about any of this until yesterday and it all just seems so hard to figure out when I had a really good routine going before. It also makes me anxious thinking about just sitting around for 4.5 hours a week and not getting anything done.

[SnuggleBuggles]

You don’t have to go to every practice. But, I recommend reframing it...you’re supporting your son not wasting time. If you just can’t sit still, walk or run during practice. Or simply read a book or get to know other people. You’ve said before that you have no free time but now you do. I have a feeling you don’t do well with downtime but hopefully you’ll learn to appreciate it and look forward to practice.

Another dinner idea is just some grilled chicken and sliced fruit or something like carrots, cucumbers, celery...and hummus. Add some pita or naan.


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