So after my return to swimming over the summer, I now need to plan how I am going to keep up the swimming once schools are back.
I was so fortunate where we used to live, being 5 mins or 15 mins from the pools I trained at, plus we trained late 8.30-9.30pm and 8-9.30pm so husband would be back to look after the kids.
So come 23rd Aug I need to leave home at 7.30am to get bigger small child to school. My nearest masters team is a good 30mins drive and practices 5.15am-6.30am, so I'd somehow have to get out of the pool at 6.30, drive through the rush hour traffic (albeit kind of against the traffic, but still..) get home have 2 small kids breakfasted, dressed and out the door all within the hour.
Husband is currently heading up some global finance project which means conference calls at all hours, so while he may be around at home, he may also have a 7am call with Europe, so can't rely on him to help out - and if he doesn't have an early call he would leave the house at 8.30am and likely stay in bed until 8.15..GRRR...
Plus by the time lunchtime comes around I'd be pooped - getting up at 5.45am this summer saw to that, so I have no idea if my body could cope with a 4.30am wake up. Smaller small child is 3 and will start pre-school 2 mornings per week, so will need entertaining the rest of the time (can't just pack 'em both off and go back to bed)
:blah::blah::blah:
So just how do you moms with small kids do it?
I do have a couple of other options to get some lap swimming in, but being coached and swimming with the team would obviously benefit my swimming the most.
Former Member
Could you work in just one coached practice per week, then do it on your own in the evenings the rest of the time? Are there others on your team who might want to plan times together? If it's a challenge for you, it's probably a challenge for them too.
I'm lucky in that I have a few options. We have several coached workouts at my health club - 5:30am, 9:30am and 6:00pm T/TH and one on Sat - so I try to fit a couple of those in and then do any other swimming on my own. Our coach is really helpful in that she'll give everyone things to work on when she's not there.
As for getting up early . . . caffeine is my friend. I have coffee after my workout buzz wears off, and another right after lunch. If things are really bad, I throw in a third around 3 (or I sneak in a quick nap when my daughter takes hers). :blush: I also try to get to bed at a reasonable hour (doesn't always happen - kid free time is precious). I guess I just kind of figure that until she's in school full time, I'm probably not going to get all the sleep I need, or spend the kind of time in the pool/gym that I used to. Just a couple more years . . .
When I had little ones at home (something that lasted way too long because my kids were born 7 years apart) there was no way I could swim on someone else's schedule. I went when I could which was in the wee hours of the morning before anyone else was up or I went after 8:30 when the kids were in bed. It doesn't last forever and it's better to do what you can by yourself than to do nothing at all. You sound pretty motivated, I bet you'll push yourself even if you're on your own!
I only have 1 five year old and the only masters team in area practices at a time that I can't with my husband's work schedule so I joined an age group team. During the school year I get up at 4:10am and swim 4:45-6:05 (practice goes to 6:15 but I have to get out early). I come home at 6:30 as my husband leaves for work. Yes, I go to bed at 8pm the night before practice so that I get in a full night's sleep. It's not fun but the practices are so worth it. During the summer practices are 5:15-7:30 and I have a baby sitter from 6:30-8 so that I can stay. I find that I have more energy when I swim early in the morning and I love being with the kids on the team. Yes, I'm the "old" one as I'm even older than the 35 year old coach. But the team is great, I get in a great workout and it works with our schedule.
Once I get home it is hectic getting everything going but again, it's all worth it in the long run.
See if you can find an age group team locally that will take you on. This is my 2nd one and I have found them to be very welcoming.
Hmmm good idea Swimshark, but I just checked the 2 local age group teams and they both practice early evening, which conflicts with dinner and bigger childs swimming and piano lessons :( . They do run a masters clinic at those locations on a month to month basis early in the mornings, which I thought about, but if I'm going to do that I would rather be part of a team yk?.
I now also have my daughter's fall swimming schedule and she will be in the pool 7 or 7.30 til 8pm 3 nights a week......who needs sleep eh?
I keep going round in clrcles on this and am back to thinking I join up at the natatorium with the really nice pool and do 2 sessions on my own while small child is at preschool plus a weekend one if I can. Membership would also cover the gym so I may get the odd workout in there.
I have five kids ranging from 2 to 17. Two are still at home, the other three have school (of those, the elementary kids go to a year-round school on mornings-only schedule, and this school is about a 15 minute drive each way). My husband works at home, and though he is extremely supportive of my swimming, there is a limit to how much I am willing to ask of him. Also, having my teen regularly babysit is not an option for me, personally--I just don't like that idea. There is a team locally to me that I'd LOVE to join. They offer 3 workouts a day, but alas, two are in perfect conflict with "our" schedule, and the third is iffy, so I just don't see it happening for me there for a few years, and I have accepted that. I've been working out on my own now for almost 3 yrs and I love it. Even though I'm coachless I am still improving and getting faster.
Swimming got a LOT easier for me when a fitness club with a 25 yd pool opened just 3 minutes from my house. (I added strength training, too!) How I work it is during the latter part of the morning, while my elementary kids are at school, and my two yr old is taking his nap. I always have my stuff ready to go so I can leave the second he goes down. That still leaves my preschooler still awake and needing supervision. But he is older (almost 5) and easy; he loves to watch his father work, and can be counted on to do quiet activities if his dad needs to take a phone call.
This doesn't work if the littlest fellow won't nap. Another thing we do is have me go in the afternoon soon after the elementary kids are home. I prepare a lunch, and when everyone is assembled at the table, little guy in his high chair, I leave for the gym/pool. This is a much easier situation --my husband can still get work done while the kids are eating, the older ones are happy to pour milk or whatever for themselves and for the littlest guy. Then it's homework time for the school kids (and the preschooler likes to watch THEM work)and my husband has found he can scootch the baby's high chair into the next room by the other kids and give the little guy a cookie or an otter pop... and it's not too demanding to supervise. If all else fails he'll put on a dvd and let TV assist his babysitting.
Under this system, I usually swim 4 times per week. Give or take 1. I love the weekends, I have much longer workouts since there's no school, and since on those days my husband often takes the kids on outings or does other special Daddy Projects with them.
So just how do you moms with small kids do it?
I didn't do it. When my kids were small, I didn't compete at all. I swam once or twice a week if possible, but many weeks swim time for me just didn't turn up. I got a bit lazy, gained a few pounds, but I've always found that my kids were more important. Children are small for such a short time, one day you wake up and all of a sudden they're teenagers and soon they will leave you and you will have all the time in world for yourself and your training.
I started training and competing again when my kids were 10 and 14. Now they're 15 and 19, and its a piece of cake (compared to back then) to put training time for mom in the schedule. Even though it's hard for me now to understand how I got by without training and being fit, I don't think I would change anything, if I got the chance to do it again. Love my children too much, I quess ;)
Our practice is from 5:15am- 6:45. So I shower at the pool and get home by 7:10am start breakfast while waking up children and getting dressed for work myself. I'm usually fatigued by 10am but I have a desk job. I usually then wourkout a little while my son has his USA practice in the evening. This year our head coach has opened the dryland coach to work with the parents during practice! Now my youngest starts swimming this year. So we pretty much live at the pool. My husband is also an official.
So I guess the answer to your question is we as a family live and breathe swimming.. thats how we do it!
Added- My kids are 6 and 11 and I just started last year. We also fostered for a few years and I know it would have been impossible for me with toddlers and babies!
Well, I didn't get to swim when my children were small, partly because we couldn't afford a second car, and partly because I was too busy just being a mommy. I've noticed now, though, that the mothers who work outside the home seem (believe it or not!) to have more flexibility in getting in their swims, because they already have their childcare set up!! One of my training partners is an attorney, and she is able to break away at lunch 3-4 times a week to swim. That's when our local "lunch bunch" has a great workout & people for her to race. How cool is that?
When I started back swimming again, baby #5 was only 18 months old, and this really nice lady from church felt sorry for me & would come to my house to babysit for me (the other 4 were in school) twice a week. Pretty soon I got addicted, and then she moved away!! Then I had to find someone else to watch the kids and that was hard - friends from church would swap with me though, other young mothers need to get out of the house too! My sister is a runner, same kind of problem, and she watches her friends kids while they swim or bike or dance, and they watch hers while she runs. So I'd recommend finding someone you trust to swap childcare with!
