By me, the majority of High School games are on weekdays (workdays). And, they usually start around 3:30 or 4 PM.
For parents who work, and whose son's games had a similar schedule as above, how did you manage to attend your son's games?
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1. Cough cough, sniffle sniffle (maybe not so good now)
2. Working remotely (kinda hard if you are in Ops) but relevant now
3. Change shifts
4. Leave work early
Start your own company and make your own schedule. Let your employees do the work while you enjoy the games.
Ask a parent to live stream. Almost everyone has unlimited data now
The struggle is real.
In 2019, it was a mixed bag. Sometimes I got there for part of the game, after work. Other times I literally got there just for the last inning or just made the parking lot for the last out. Those times sucked.
I had a plan to flex hours in 2020 that would have worked. But then the pandemic killed the season.
This year, I'm in a different work situation and probably will be worse than 2019. It really bugs me. I might be limited to the 2 or 3 games that happen on the weekend.
Most good bosses will allow flexibility if you are on top of things. If there is truly a thing that requires me to miss a game here and there, I will miss the game.
It won’t kill you to miss some games. I missed a few by being out of town. But I had a talk with myself. I promised I wouldn’t fire myself if I left work early for games. I was part owner of the company. It just meant I would be at my desk working in the evening. Not that it didn’t happen all the time anyway.
@TerribleBPthrower posted:Start your own company and make your own schedule. Let your employees do the work while you enjoy the games.
worked for me, I had a group of text dads without the flexibility to be there. those men thanked me 100 times for the updates. I sent batter by batter updates before gamechanger with brief description of play. I wish I had buck for every time I typed mile high behind shallow left and got the response of my wife said it was bomb that got caught....LOL good times.
Gamechanger saved me lots of data in the pre unlimited days
@Viking0 posted:Most good bosses will allow flexibility if you are on top of things. If there is truly a thing that requires me to miss a game here and there, I will miss the game.
totally agree but some jobs in operations just don't allow that flexibility
@old_school posted:worked for me, I had a group of text dads without the flexibility to be there. those men thanked me 100 times for the updates. I sent batter by batter updates before gamechanger with brief description of play. I wish I had buck for every time I typed mile high behind shallow left and got the response of my wife said it was bomb that got caught....LOL good times.
Gamechanger saved me lots of data in the pre unlimited days
Same here. I was busting my but crushing my job and getting promoted. "winners drive home in the dark" was my motto. When my son started sports and especially tee ball I started to really feel bad about not being there. And when I was there I was always on my phone closing a deal. A few months later at a party a CEO asked me what was stopping me from going out on my own. 6 months later I had a plan and enough money to get started.
Since starting my company I haven't missed a game. Sometimes I'm still on the phone or laptop closing a deal, but I'm always there. My dad literally never saw me play in a baseball game. He's making up for it I guess by making it to my son's when he can get down to FL.
@RJM posted:It won’t kill you to miss some games. I missed a few by being out of town. But I had a talk with myself. I promised I wouldn’t fire myself if I left work early for games. I was part owner of the company. It just meant I would be at my desk working in the evening. Not that it didn’t happen all the time anyway.
I guess your partners were okay with that and seeing you talking to yourself may have helped
My son's games were mostly at 5 pm, but I had 2 other kids, and had to miss games because of their activities. Whichever parent was at the game live-texted to the other; there was also iScore.
Both of us made all of his home and away games senior year. Except for the last. It was my youngest son's middle school graduation, and we were sure that the team was going to win their first sectional game, and there would be another game after that, so my husband went to the game and I went to the graduation. Don't ever make that mistake!
I can tell you that the last few weeks I have a melancholy feeling that I can't shake about the fact that those days are over and I can't do it again. Go. If there is a way to make it happen, go. I don't know when the last game will be, but I already know how special HS games were. I will go to any game I can make it to. I am seeing parents all the time who have seen their last game and didn't know it. Watching my kids play has been some of the best days I've had...bar none.
Seems like a lifetime ago. I guess I was lucky. Son’s varsity games were usually at 6:00pm the best I can remember. My advice, do anything you can to make as many games as possible. It is a sacrifice but the work can always get done tomorrow. Those baseball games you can NEVER get back. I am also fortunate that I own my own business. In 2017 when we made it all the way to WS finals in Omaha, I missed over 40 days of work, 12 of which were spent in Omaha. That week plus was the single greatest baseball memory I have to date. Cherish them ALL as they are gone before you know it.
This year if there is Spring Baseball, my kid's HS will play some games in NYC that will help me tremendously to get to his games on time as rush hour traffic here creeping/crept back to prepandemic levels and 20 miles can add 30 minutes to a commute.
@Francis7 posted:By me, the majority of High School games are on weekdays (workdays). And, they usually start around 3:30 or 4 PM.
For parents who work, and whose son's games had a similar schedule as above, how did you manage to attend your son's games?
Like others, it feels like another lifetime - son graduated HS in 2012. And I still have vivid memories of them winning the district championship. (Son drove in the tying run in the bottom of the 7th with 2 outs - they would win in the 8th.)
I was fortunate in that most of my son's HS games were at 7 pm. For the away games my boss allowed me to leave early enough to get there or I just took the day off. The only hitch was when games were postponed and rescheduled due to weather. But my boss was usually pretty good about working with me on time off.
For home games it was cutting it close as I usually left a 5 pm and had a 90 minute commute just to get to my house. The HS was another 20 minutes further down the road. Many times I left an hour early (with the boss' okay) in case traffic was bad.
When it came to the playoffs I usually worked half a day or again took the day off - especially when they were away.
I very much agree with YoungGun. Make every effort to attend your son's games. You simply can't get them back. The work will always be there. You never know when it will be the last game. I can safely say I attended all of my son's games his senior year, except one.
By the way - Enjoy the ride. It's like a roller coaster - you won't want it to end.
Son's last college game was in 2015 and 6 years later I still miss it.
I missed only one of my younger kid's baseball games over 4 years. I think I missed only two of his basketball game, and maybe two of my older kid's x country meets.
Last year when my son's college baseball season fizzled out I started watching old HS games that a parent of a teammate had made, edited and posted on YouTube. Looks like I'll have to do that again.
@JCG posted:I missed only one of my younger kid's baseball games over 4 years. I think I missed only two of his basketball game, and maybe two of my older kid's x country meets.
Last year when my son's college baseball season fizzled out I started watching old HS games that a parent of a teammate had made, edited and posted on YouTube. Looks like I'll have to do that again.
Wow! I apparently suck
@Dadbelly2023 posted:Wow! I apparently suck
Nah, you probably have a real job. I haven't had one of those in decades.
One thing that helped is my kids are almost five years apart. My daughter (softball) headed for college as my son entered high school. He rarely had games on Saturday. Saturday and Sunday I would be at college softball.
I remember being in VA for softball on Friday and Saturday morning for 18u travel softball, LL all stars Saturday night in PA and back to VA for softball Sunday.
I worked an earlier schedule, calling into meetings from the baseball field or on the way to basketball games (usually those are later) and often worked online in the evening afterwards--fully acknowledging that my job allowed for that. Other options are grabbing an early shift if possible. It's not easy, for sure. Basketball season used to kill us with all three playing. We either had 3 games in one day (we would have to divide and conquer) or a game every single night of the week. Now, with a college and HS senior and a college junior I think we enjoy being there more than they need us to be there but we still do everything we can do make as many games as we can Now the games are in IN, IL, FL and all around the frickin' country (We will never be able to afford to retire at this point!!). Livestream, TV games and GameChanger are all awesome.
Good luck, give yourself grace if you miss something but definitely cherish these moments and make it whenever you can! If you can't start your own business, find that boss that understands (or be that boss) and hang on for dear life.
@PTWood posted:I worked an earlier schedule, calling into meetings from the baseball field or on the way to basketball games (usually those are later) and often worked online in the evening afterwards--fully acknowledging that my job allowed for that. Other options are grabbing an early shift if possible. It's not easy, for sure. Basketball season used to kill us with all three playing. We either had 3 games in one day (we would have to divide and conquer) or a game every single night of the week. Now, with a college and HS senior and a college junior I think we enjoy being there more than they need us to be there but we still do everything we can do make as many games as we can Now the games are in IN, IL, FL and all around the frickin' country (We will never be able to afford to retire at this point!!). Livestream, TV games and GameChanger are all awesome.
Good luck, give yourself grace if you miss something but definitely cherish these moments and make it whenever you can! If you can't start your own business, find that boss that understands (or be that boss) and hang on for dear life.
Conference networks have been a game changer. For me, they came just a little late. Too late for my daughter. Not the heavy schedule they have now for my son.
I remember watching a couple of friends/former teammate’s sons play for Vanderbilt (class of ‘09) when they had a fixed camera high behind home and a very amateurish announcing team of college students.
@2022NYC posted:I guess your partners were okay with that and seeing you talking to yourself may have helped
I moved from the home office on the west coast to the east coast to start the region and stayed. Actually, in two years we moved from CA to NJ to CA to PA, then stayed. My partners never saw me walk out the door. But if one called I told him I was at a game. I sometimes told them to call me back after 7pm at home.
Anything weird like talking to myself wouldn’t have shocked them. They thought it was weird I sometimes walked around my office while working or talking on the phone.
@JCG posted:I missed only one of my younger kid's baseball games over 4 years. I think I missed only two of his basketball game, and maybe two of my older kid's x country meets.
Last year when my son's college baseball season fizzled out I started watching old HS games that a parent of a teammate had made, edited and posted on YouTube. Looks like I'll have to do that again.
My wife recorded every. Single. HS. Game. I'm not kidding. Hence, we have a library of DVD's with all of our son's HS games & American Legion games from sophomore year on. She also recorded the college games we attended. She never got around to creating DVD's of the college games - they are still on the camera. There's only a few I've actually rewatched, but it's nice to have them if we ever choose to view them.
I was on the phone one day on the leftfield line attempting to mediate a dispute between one of my people and an unreasonable but longstanding client, was as fairly long conversation (by at the ballgame standards) and my son is on deck of close game, the kid in front of him walks. As he is walking towards the plate I flatly stated "I think we have nothing left to gain discussing this, let me know tomorrow if you want terminate the agreement, good bye"....LOL son hit a game winner, client was dumbstruck and remained in the deal, we made piles of money on the deal and he ended up apologizing for being an ass!! I remember it like yesterday, good times!!
He is still a client and I did tell him after the fact why I dumped him at the moment. Gotta have priorities and all 4 of his kids were athletes.
My baseball season office looks like this: 1. under the weather pod in son's team color. 2. GCI outdoor rocking chair with a swivel tray for my laptop. 3. small clip fan 4. work tablet with mobile jetpack and noise cancelling headset 5. small USB charger for phone, tablet and fan 4. small cooler with drinks and snacks. I usually sit way off the OF so I can use the noise cancelling to have meetings. It was worth every cent. My wife and kid are embarrassed by dad's work pod. My wife would record the games I would not attend but I had to watch in mute, her editorial makes Suzyn Waldman pleasurable on top of the motion sickness from her recording...luckily she does not come on this site.
Suzyn Waldman is from Boston. She’s payback for the Babe Ruth deal. And New Yorkers somehow think they got the best of the deal. LOL!
@2022NYC posted:My wife would record the games I would not attend but I had to watch in mute, her editorial makes Suzyn Waldman pleasurable on top of the motion sickness from her recording...luckily she does not come on this site.
spectacular
I used to take work to son's games. Sometimes on the laptop, sometimes just signing endless paperwork I was required to sign while working in corporate America. I was pretty proud of myself for having it all worked out.
Until the day my son came to me and said "mom, if you don't have time to come to my games, that's fine, don't come. Don't come and work."
It was an important lesson about actually being there in the moment. Never took work again, missed a few games, but the ones I was at I cherish.
