Bad mom with practice times

[school17777]

Dd has practice 3x a week - 2 different places, three different start and ending times. Plus, they sometimes have to come early, stay late, or both.  I just can’t keep it straight!

Dd is the last being picked up tonight.  I “thought” the end time was changed to later permanently, but apparently that was a one time change.  

As I get older, changes to the routine are harder to remember- especially when I don’t have a chance to add the change to my calendar.

[katilac]

If you don't have at least one "I forgot when to pick up my child and they were the last one waiting" story, are you even a parent? 

[school17777]

And dh went to the wrong place to pick her up, twice the distance.  So, I had to run out and pick her up in the car with no gas (because in addition to cooking and cleaning, I’m the only one who knows how to put gas in the car, the car wasn’t my car that was out of gas and the light came on as soon as I got in it).  Then, dh was blaming me for mismanaging the times.  At least I knew which team she was practicing with tonight!

I had no idea that I’d be out of the house today.  I’m wearing a very pretty pink 20 year old jogging suit that dd was not at all happy to see me wearing to pick her up in, plus my face/hair was not made up to leave the house.  Had to meet the varsity coach for the first time looking like a mess and had to stop for a gas at the very crowded gas station.

Edited October 14, 2020 by school17777

[SounderChick]

Ugh yes!  I had so much trouble with DD being in children theatre production.  It was on zoom and we still messed it up so much to have different times and days.  

[SKL]

My bigger struggle is making it work with two kids in different places with overlapping start/end times, plus the fact that these times often occur during my clients' business hours.  Yes, sometimes that means I am not at Location X at exactly Y o'clock.

I wouldn't care about it if the other adults would just let my kid (a 9th grader) wait alone.  But no, they think they have to wait with her.  I have been telling my kid to just start walking if she is the last one there.  Apparently adults are fine with a teen walking alone but not standing alone.

[Guest]

If you have Alexa or Siri or something similar, you can tell it to remind you when you first read the pickup location/time. I do this a lot (or, “did”, in the before times) because it’s really easy for me to forget if it’s not occurring on a pattern. 

[Ausmumof3]

Ugh sounds like a day.  I hate trying to manage a calendar.  Takes so much time 

[PeterPan]

13 hours ago, school17777 said:

As I get older, changes to the routine are harder to remember

If you want a REALLY bad one, I got announced in the entire vendor hall of a very large state homeschool convention, because I forgot the pick up time for my ds.  

Now I set timers for EVERYTHING. Like I have an appointment today, and I told my phone to add a time reminder AND I have the calendar beep. If it's recurring, I set alarms on my phone. And I will set timers on the stove to remind me to leave. The stove is kind of hard to ignore, lol.

But yeah, use your tech, use your phone. I figure it's my early onset Alzheimers. I really don't know. Some people say it's turning 40, but I was mid-30s when I forgot ds, haha. Whatever it is, it's solvable with tech. 

2 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Ugh sounds like a day.  I hate trying to manage a calendar.  Takes so much time 

Paper or tech? I use the Calendars5 app, which syncs across all my devices. I let the apple cloud think sync my calendars to my dh's stuff, so he knows where I am. My ds' therapy appointments (myriad and varied) are all in the google calendar, which again syncs easily across devices. And with those, he can just tap open the appointment and click for his zoom link. 

Honestly, I didn't use my tech as much as I *could* have till I hurt my hand. I had a whole thread here where we went through how to push things to use Siri/Alexa, how to make apps work better for you, etc. I also learned to love the Things app. On your apple phones, you can tell Siri which app to use for a command. So you instead of using the default app, you can use your more preferred app for reminders, lists, whatever.

[Ausmumof3]

2 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

If you want a REALLY bad one, I got announced in the entire vendor hall of a very large state homeschool convention, because I forgot the pick up time for my ds.  

Now I set timers for EVERYTHING. Like I have an appointment today, and I told my phone to add a time reminder AND I have the calendar beep. If it's recurring, I set alarms on my phone. And I will set timers on the stove to remind me to leave. The stove is kind of hard to ignore, lol.

But yeah, use your tech, use your phone. I figure it's my early onset Alzheimers. I really don't know. Some people say it's turning 40, but I was mid-30s when I forgot ds, haha. Whatever it is, it's solvable with tech. 

Paper or tech? I use the Calendars5 app, which syncs across all my devices. I let the apple cloud think sync my calendars to my dh's stuff, so he knows where I am. My ds' therapy appointments (myriad and varied) are all in the google calendar, which again syncs easily across devices. And with those, he can just tap open the appointment and click for his zoom link. 

Honestly, I didn't use my tech as much as I *could* have till I hurt my hand. I had a whole thread here where we went through how to push things to use Siri/Alexa, how to make apps work better for you, etc. I also learned to love the Things app. On your apple phones, you can tell Siri which app to use for a command. So you instead of using the default app, you can use your more preferred app for reminders, lists, whatever.

I use a hotch potch 

I dont really trust my phone because I done it stupidly easy to accidentally delete or move an appointment on the touch screen.  I do use it for recurring stuff where I basically know what’s happening but just need a pop up reminder.  I also don’t trust myself not to get side tracked.  And my kids like to look at the calendar and see what’s coming up. 

[SanDiegoMom]

My daughter does ballet 5x a week.  Each time is a different start time and a different length of time.  And it is in person every 1st and 3rd week of the month and zoom every 2nd and 4th week.  Except for Tuesdays which are always in person.  

Ask me how many times I've messed up with the drop off and pick up times.  

And of course the day we get it right and my husband shows up at 8:01 to pick up from a class that ends at 8 and usually goes over? My daughter had been frantically texting me to find out where my husband was! Apparently they all got out early that day and of course all the good moms were already there waiting.  

 

[PeterPan]

21 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

I use a hotch potch 

I see this with ds' therapists and IEP teams. Some of them still use paper planners/calendars, especially for their work. I don't have the memory for it. (literally, I'm having memory problems, have been for a few years, maybe because of some head injuries)

The trick for me with getting my phone to work (this is for op) was to go BIG. I use the biggest phone I can find, so when the calendar is open on the screen I can actually read everything, lol. And it's all color coordinated by person and subcategory under the person. And a bigger phone means I lose it less. I still forget where I put it, but it's so BIG it shows across the room lol. And now if you holler and ask Siri where he is (because my Siri is a MAN, hahaha), he'll answer. He's my total slave. Or maybe he's my butler? He's my man servant.  

Edited October 14, 2020 by PeterPan

[Alicia64]

I love the idea that everyone does this at least once!!

This won't help OP, but I want to share my hack for keeping the kids' schedule straight in mind:

I print out their schedules and trim it down so that it'll fit on my steering wheel -- and then I tape it on!! (It's there all semester.)

I look at the thing everyday when I'm driving.

🙄

W.

 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Alicia64 said:

I love the idea that everyone does this at least once!!

This won't help OP, but I want to share my hack for keeping the kids' schedule straight in mind:

I print out their schedules and trim it down so that it'll fit on my steering wheel -- and then I tape it on!! (It's there all semester.)

I look at the thing everyday when I'm driving.

🙄

W.

 

I have done that with sticky notes. Kinda hard to forget to mail a package or whatever if I can’t even start the car without seeing a note reminding me. 

I also put sticky notes in the middle of the bathroom mirror if it’s something I will have to remember early in the morning. That way I will be reminded, even if it’s pre-coffee. 

[SKL]

LOL my kids' marching band schedule looks like this:  practice 3-5 on either Tuesday or Wednesday, and 5-7 on either Wednesday or Thursday, play at a football game on Thursday or Friday but maybe not depending on whether it's a game the health department lets us play at, and also play at selected soccer games on various days to make up for not playing at all of the football games.

Then soccer - the games (1 to 3 games per week) can be any day from Monday through Saturday at any time outside of school hours.  Practices are most (not all) non-game days, either 4:45-6 or 4:45-6:30, except one Monday it was 9am (yes, during a "school day" but we are virtual on Mondays).

In both cases, the schedules are sent out either Sunday or Monday for that week only.  Times change, game days are dropped and added as different schools respond to different Covid related things.  We get texts and emails throughout the week with daily changes.

Horse riding is a bit better - we can usually arrive and leave whenever within a time range.  Except when all the adults leave (without advance notice to parents) and they kick the younger people out.  One time my 13yo was alone waiting for her ride, and she swears she encountered a ghost.  Sigh.

TKD also changes frequently, but we aren't required to be there if we are busy doing something else.  It just means we get behind on our requirements for the next scheduled belt test.  😞

[Miss Tick]

One solution is to arrange carpool with someone who is a shade less reliable. Makes you look good!

[mom2scouts]

After not having outside the house activities for so long, I'm struggling with new schedules too. The "repeat" function on my cell phone alarm is saving me! I set the time to get ready, the time to leave, and the time I need to leave the house for pickup.

[73349]

On 10/14/2020 at 9:43 AM, PeterPan said:

And now if you holler and ask Siri where he is (because my Siri is a MAN, hahaha), he'll answer. He's my total slave. Or maybe he's my butler? He's my man servant.  

My phone is totally my boss. Did you put the compost out yet? You need to sign up for the stream clean-up. What's the laundry situation right now? Did you take your medicine? Empty the dishwasher? Is there gas in the car? You know that webinar starts in 20 minutes, right?

I pretty much need to be micromanaged.

Edited February 15, 2022 by 73349

[school17777]

On 10/14/2020 at 5:41 PM, mom2scouts said:

After not having outside the house activities for so long, I'm struggling with new schedules too. The "repeat" function on my cell phone alarm is saving me! I set the time to get ready, the time to leave, and the time I need to leave the house for pickup.

That might be the issue - not having anything out of the house for a bit, I got out of practice.  I was really good managing 4 kids and multiple teams - generally 2 per kid - school team plus club, but now that I’m down to one kid - it’s harder!  It was probably the Covid break that got me out of sync.

[school17777]

I much prefer a paper schedule, but I have been using my phone calendar and setting reminders.  It’s the last minute changes that are hard to keep up with for me.

AND, I have no idea how to use Siri even though this is my second phone with it.  I know how to use it in the car, but not without the steering wheel button.