All-Star How Do You Get To Practice?

[Just-a-Mom]

In my search for a gym, I've found that I apparently live in the center dot of a large perfect circle of cheer gyms--all of them seem to be an hour from us, no matter which direction. Most of the ones we've looked at have practice at 4:00 or 5:00 (maybe 6:00 if I'm lucky). So I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get my girls to practice (I'm also learning that cheerleading is definitely NOT an easy sport for a newly single mom to "do" alone). We don't even have a car because we live in the city and don't ever need one. So we'll be using ZipCar to get to practices, since the train doesn't go that far out of the city. But I'll have to leave work at least an hour early on practice days (fortunately my boss is awesome and has said this will be ok as long as I come in early those days).

So here's my 2 questions:
1. How do you get to practice? Car? Train? Walk?
2. How do most of you pull this off? I'm sure most people have jobs that go until 5:00, so why such early practices? And how are you guys getting your cp's there without getting fired? I don't think my boss realizes how often practice is, or how annoying me walking out at 3:30 a couple times a week is going to be.

So this is sort of "survey/curiosity" and sort of hoping some magical advice will fall in my lap.

 

[mdcheerdiva]

I get off work at 4pm to get my cp's to practice by 6pm, I also pick up other children when their parents have other committments. I would ask the gym's if they already have established carpools from your area. I know that a lot of kids at my cp's gym would not be there if carpools were not an option.

 

[Just-a-Mom]

I drive myself, but before that my dad drove me.

Did you tell your boss how often practice is going to be?

Lol. Yeah, I told him. but he's a single guy from England. Sort of a "rocker" guy. I don't think that he's very good at thinking past next week--don't get me wrong, he's awesome at what we do...but I think he's just thinking "Oh. OK, so she's going to leave Tuesday and Thursday at 3:30. cool." Not "Oh ok. EVERY Tuesday and Thursday".

I think he'll be ok with it, but i was hoping to find a less annoying strategy. Hopefully there will be other cp's that live in the city and we can carpool. That's good idea too--I can ask the gym and team moms if they know of anyone coming from my area. Ah well, we'll make it work somehow. Anything for my princesses, right?

 

[Bcheercoach]

Well, I practice only on weekends, and every day the week before a comp. Some weekends I take the train if my parents can't drive me. Then again I'm a boy so it's a little less sketch for me to travel alone. A lot of kids travel on my team, some from Vegas and Nor-cal.. Where there's a will there's a way!

 

[lakerfantlc]

I am blessed that I do not work outside the home...notice I didnt say I dont work...hahaha....we travel 2 hrs each way 3 times a week to go to Cali....it is so awesome and worth every minute and dollar....I feel for you though....it's so hard when the kids love cheer because Lord knows it is a huge comminment!! My best advice is make sure your gym has a tax id number and go out and get sponsors.....businesses set aside money for non profits and with the tax id number....it will help...good luck and take care!!!

 

[ChelleShocked]

We have some practices that start at 4 and some that start at 6 and my mom usually doesn't get home until 6. I used to take the bus to practice (one gym is 20 minutes away and was easier, the other is an hour to an hour and 45 minutes away, a lot less convenient). I just bought a year-round bus pass so I didn't have to pay $2 each way; if your kids are old enough maybe you could look into that?

Now I ride with someone else who doesn't work during the day. I'd definitely suggest asking other parents at the gym if there's a way you could carpool... maybe ask if you can switch off every other week/month, or if they could drive to practices while you drive to weekend events.

 

[kickdblcj]

Well my team practices on fridays and traffic in Southern california is ridiculous. My team practices at 6 and I have class till 3, its a 2 hour drive if there is no traffic but since its Socal theres traffic 24/7 which means that my 2 hour drive turns into a 6 hour drive so I have to leave class early. Luckily I am in college and can leave whenever I want.

 

[ShutItDown]

i swim

 

[F!ERCE]

I heard ACEDAD rides his dinosaur.

 

[Just-a-Mom]

I heard ACEDAD rides his dinosaur.

Ooooh! That's what I was thinking of doing! I think ZipCar is going to come out with dinosaurs now that the price of gas is going up! Perfect!!!

My problems are solved--then I won't even have to leave work, I can just saddle up the dino, strap the girls on it, and off they go!

 

[mollymags]

In my search for a gym, I've found that I apparently live in the center dot of a large perfect circle of cheer gyms--all of them seem to be an hour from us, no matter which direction. Most of the ones we've looked at have practice at 4:00 or 5:00 (maybe 6:00 if I'm lucky). So I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get my girls to practice (I'm also learning that cheerleading is definitely NOT an easy sport for a newly single mom to "do" alone). We don't even have a car because we live in the city and don't ever need one. So we'll be using ZipCar to get to practices, since the train doesn't go that far out of the city. But I'll have to leave work at least an hour early on practice days (fortunately my boss is awesome and has said this will be ok as long as I come in early those days).

So here's my 2 questions:
1. How do you get to practice? Car? Train? Walk?
2. How do most of you pull this off? I'm sure most people have jobs that go until 5:00, so why such early practices? And how are you guys getting your cp's there without getting fired? I don't think my boss realizes how often practice is, or how annoying me walking out at 3:30 a couple times a week is going to be.

So this is sort of "survey/curiosity" and sort of hoping some magical advice will fall in my lap.

I'm not sure exactly what gyms you're looking at, but when you're saying they're an hour away, are you going off the time that Google Maps/Mapquest/etc is telling you? If you're actually living in the Chicago and looking to commute to a gym in the suburbs, know that traffic around the city at rush hour is a nightmare and will take longer than you expect. There is a train that goes from the LaSalle Street station to Mokena, where Cheer Command is, and a train that goes from Union Station to Aurora, where Ice (formerly ICC) is. Unfortunately, you'd need to find a way to get from the train station in the suburbs to the gym.

 

[Just-a-Mom]

I'm not sure exactly what gyms you're looking at, but when you're saying they're an hour away, are you going off the time that Google Maps/Mapquest/etc is telling you? If you're actually living in the Chicago and looking to commute to a gym in the suburbs, know that traffic around the city at rush hour is a nightmare and will take longer than you expect. There is a train that goes from the LaSalle Street station to Mokena, where Cheer Command is, and a train that goes from Union Station to Aurora, where Ice (formerly ICC) is. Unfortunately, you'd need to find a way to get from the train station in the suburbs to the gym.

Yes, I only know what mapquest tells me. We're actually going to drive them next week and go see the gyms in person. I've been told it may be easier to get North than West at rush hour. But we're going to test it out and see which ones we can actually get to in the evenings. We're mostly looking at UA right now--we're supposed to go there next week for an evaluation. I may try to drive one weeknight this week and see how much of a nightmare it is.

We tried looking at gyms that could be gotten to on train, but all of them we had the same issue--getting from the train to the gym. And since we'll be new I feel a little weird asking people to pick my kids up at the train station. I'm hoping once we start somewhere and meet some people to find someone else who commutes from within the city and seeing if they want to carpool--like each of us drive one night a week. But for now I'll have to drive.

All my old cheer friends from VA are wondering what on earth is taking me 4 months to find a gym--THIS is the whole problem! We can't GET TO any!

And I want to make sure I'm going to be able to get them there EVERY PRACTICE before I commit. I sooooo do not want to be that mom that never brings her kids to practice.

 

[Katie]

i only practice on weekdays also, twice
my mom does not have a job my dad does, so i carpool with a neighbor that does it too,
my mom takes one way, them the other
and were 20 minutes away from the gym

 

[mainestarsALLSTARS13]

I go to my practices by car! The gym is like an hour a way, and we only have team practice for 3 hours on sunday so it works out really well becuase my dad never works on sunday (occasionally my mom does). We also have tumbling through out the week, but i go to a gym right down the street from me (it's a satellite gym so it doesn't have any teams) to tumbling twice a week. It works out really well becuase the only mandatory practices are on the weekends. I also will carpool with other people, which make it easier on my parents

 

[Fameous MOM]

We drive (car) 5-6 days a week. I get off by 3 everyday and her earliest time to be there is 4:30 and that is for a lesson.