Figure Skating and that Whole Job Thing

I get my Skater Grrrl to the rink via some combination of
- myself (I work part-time in the evenings) driving in the morning or afternoon
-my husband (AM before he goes to work, or he picks up in the afternoon)
- grandmother, who picks up, drops off, and sometimes will keep Skater Grrrl overnight at her house to get her to rink and then school in the AM. We LOVE Skater Grandmothers!
- carpool with other parents.

This year we’ll have 4 skaters at our middle school, so I’ll be the carpool over to rink after school with parents taking turns carpooling back.

Also, we have a middle school activity bus that drops off hockey players at one of the rinks in the afternoon after school; you can bet I’m going to call (and call and call and call) the district and request a drop-off one afternoon for our figure skaters.

In a pinch, coaches at the rink have brought my skater home on their way home. I reimburse/thank them with brownies and expensive coffee drinks.

We have a lot of people helping out and supporting our skater. I have no idea how we’d do it without all of them. It would probably be me with my hair on fire every day.

As far as competitions go, my work schedule is super flexible. What’s not as flexible is time off from school. I’ve had to do some fancy maneuvering at times to get my skater out of school for a competition or test session.

I’m an adult, but i don’t drive. I’m really lucky to live only a half hour walk away from the rink. I reccently changed to a less flexible job, so after school patches are no longer possible. But i can still make morning patch. I usually walk down and either get a lift into work from a skate mum (I work in the city centre, so nice and easy) or get the bus to work. On lesson days, my lovely coach picks me up.

Work – a necessary evil.

My family does all of our driving (no carpooling) as we live in small town with no skaters close by our home. All I can say is thank heavens for Grandparents and semi-flexible work schedules. If I know in advance I can modify my schedule as long as I have no meetings or training to conduct Dh works for our family business so he has HUGE flexibility; however, I do most of the running and modifying of my schedule because even though dh is more flexible last minute no work = no pay for a family run business.

If a competition or test falls on a work day I take vacation (I am very fortunate and have 5 weeks available every year – well I think that is generous considering what many of our friends have).

I also have great extended family who will do running when needed. Yesterday I could not take off work for our 8 hour round trip for coaching so my Mom (retired) took dd. She also did most of my daytime running this summer to and from the rink.

Great post! I get to the rink on the bus. It takes 30-40 minutes depending on the time of day (early morning is fine, but the 9am session is hellish as the roads are full of work traffic). I’m getting my drivers license though, whoohoo. How old is Ice Girl? How long ’til she gets her own car? I have a lot of admiration and respect for parents like yourself and your husband who bend over backwards for your daughters passion. I salut you!

This is an issue for us at times too….and what is it with the dads and grumping about being there??? My hubby grumps too and I often wonder if it was a son and football for example, if he’d be complaining so much. Anyway…sometimes my job is flexible, I am a consultant and sometimes I can work at home (or the rink), but other times I am on big projects where I am gone (like out of state) for weeks or even months at a time. Then I have to go to the husband well. He works as a substitute teacher, so he takes jumpingbean after school and stays until she is done (the source of his discontent) either 2 or 3 hours later. In his defense, we also have a high school aged daughter who goes to school in another town, doesn’t yet drive and also has to be schlepped back and forth to school so it is alot to deal with most weeks.

I’m an adult skater- so I have to plan my ice time around my work schedule (I’m one of those teachers- so its super easy to be on the ice during breaks/holidays, but super hard during the year). During the year, I practice for an hour at 6am before heading to school once a week and then I have 2-3 hours in the evening once a week, and then weekends. I am lucky that my coaches are available at the same time I am and that ice is also available. However, this does mean that I have very little social life outside of school and skating- so many people wonder why/how I spend so much time at the rink! If the rink were closer to my work, I would love to go during the day as it is almost completely empty ice during the school year!

For us this is an issue, we have no relatives living in our state to help out. It is definently a juggling act! Fortunately I’ve usually only worked part-time jobs so it is mostly me taking her to the rink, and sometimes her Dad picks her up. (She skates and hour then works out an hour – sometimes I can stay to watch for most of the skating portion, sometimes not.) On Fridays my husband is usually off work so sometimes he handles that day… His work schedule is not the most flexible other days though and I’ve often told my daughter that she’s lucky I’ve only ever had part-time jobs because me working full-time would be the equilvilent of her quitting skating! Once recently I did let her ride with a figure skater friend who has now been driving for nearly a year – normally we do not do this though, I’m not very comfortable sending my kids with “teen drivers” – call me a nervous nelly, but it is scary to me….
Like others, my husband can get grumpy about going to the rink too! It’s not as bad now that he has a laptop & our rink got better WiFi (it didn’t used to work in the ice rink stands before) – so now “Grumpy Papa Bear” is appeased with his computer time! :~)
As far as competitions go, I have often taken time off work (unpaid!) to take her to competitions. For tests my husband has often taken her to those, they seem to often fall when I am working and when he is not ( a lot of Fridays!) – most recently there was a test on Presidents Day in Feb (a Monday) – which seemed good since there’s no school, but both of us had to work… Luckily my husband was able to switch his day off that week and take her to the test that morning. (Passed senior moves, yay!) I guess we have made a lot of sacrafices to get her to the rink 5 days a week for many years now… I didn’t think much about it until recently a friend of mine said how amazing it was that we drove her there that often & for so long – esp when it has ment that I can only work part-time all these years. What she said made me realize that most parents just have their kids do after school clubs/sports while they work their full-time jobs not even thinking about it… I think a figure skating family’s life is much more complicated than the average American family’s – love that idea about being able to take the bus to the rink! Maybe some day my daughter will appreciate all this??? Hmmm. Maybe when she’s 20 or so? :~)

I’ve let Ice Girl ride with Ice Friend, who has her license. Ice Dad was pretty uncomfortable about it and people made jokes like: it’s scary when the responsible person in the car isn’t the driver. (Ice Friend has zero sense of direction.) It turned out O.K. I think Ice Friend knew I’d skin her alive if she did anything ridiculous.

I think you’re right about other parents not understanding the time commmittment for our sport. Those lucky parents with a kid in, say, volleyball can go to work and attend an occasional game at 7 p.m., the lucky dogs. I bet they even cook.

I remember at a high school graduation, one of the student speakers thanked his parents for never missing one of his games. If that’s the standard for being a good parent, I’ve passed those people up!

Why is it that the rink makes dads grumpy? Is it all the estrogen? If Ice Dad takes Ice Girl to the rink too often, he starts saying nonsense like: Do we really need to be taking her to the rink that much? and Why can’t she choose a different sport – like jogging?

So, there’s only so often that I’ll ask him to take her to the rink. That’s fine. I get work done in the lobby now that most of the rinks where she skates have wifi and an outlet.

Congratulations to your skater on passing senior moves! That’s fabulous.

Social life outside of the rink? What’s that?

Part of what keeps Ice Dad’s grumping down to a dull roar is that the rink has a McD’s nearby. Ice Dad loves their coffee. (I didn’t say the man has good taste.)

He’ll camp out at McD’s, drink coffee alongside the town’s older folks, and watch YouTube on his computer. Or, he’ll go back to work where he’ll drink coffee and watch YouTube. Well, he probably does something usefull…

Yes, we do have a much greater time commitment! Even if you don’t stay to watch them skate you still have to get them there! It was funny, we walked into my daughter’s registration day for her first year of high school and the “Volleyball girls” were attacking her trying to get her to play volleyball – maybe because she’s nearly 5’7″??? ;~) But she was all “No, No, I’m a figure skater…”
I was so glad to be DONE with moves… except now she’s starting ice dance…. took 2 lessons and we were told that she’s ready for the first NINE dance tests!?! Wow. Well, she has done the first three = over $100 spent there, not counting the lesson $$$. We knew it was expensive but she does enjoy it and since she may end up coaching it is valuable to have at least a little dance experience. And so we truck to a rink 30 min away once a week for the dance lessons…. I saw in an article yesterday that Brian Orser makes $110 an hour coaching – told my daughter that could be her someday, hahaha! Although even $30 an hour is nothing to sneeze at either I guesss!
And cooking? What’s that? :~)

Good luck to Ice Girl today!

You’re intent on inviting the wrath and ire of the volleyball parent contingent, aren’t you?

No, no! I want to be a volleyball mom! Can you imagine? Games indoors, no coaching or gym fees, practice at school, dinners at home, oil changes every three months or so…

Ah, to be a volleyball mom.

I don’t want to tick those women off, I want to be one of them! I’d be a good volleyball mom…

Gigi, if we had a bus in our town that went to the rink, you can bet that Ice Girl would be on it!

Ice Girl can get her license in 18 months. The first morning where she drives herself to the rink at 5:15 a.m. will be a beautiful thing, I tell you. I have day dreams about this. She’ll put the dog out, feed him, and come into my room to tell me she’s leaving. I’ll roll over. Maybe I’ll snore…

Wow… never thought of bribing the competition schedulers! Would have been great to have a nice afternoon weekend time for the upcoming comp (instead of having to take off school and work and get up well before dawn to make 7:30 on Fri!). This is really tough for us. My husband has zero flexibility during the school year (he’s a teacher). I’ve been able to negotiate a non-quite-part-time schedule at work, but it’s still difficult figuring out how to fit work, 6 days of getting dd to the rink (sometimes multiple times), music lessons/youth orchestra and daily violin practice (supervised by me, of course), school, homework, dinner (??), grocery shopping, etc. My employers have been great, but I worry about taking too much time. So far, so good though.

Hey, Sk8nln.

You’re lucky to have some family to help out! My only relative lives 90 minutes away. Ice Grandma’s supposed to be semi-retired, but she keeps picking up hours, so there’s just no way she’s available to help out.

We don’t have any skaters in our town, either. Well, we have one. Um. No comment.

Five weeks of vacation is a beautiful thing, Sk8nln. I envy you. I always say: Thirty days hath September, April, June, and Ice Dad. All the rest of us have two weeks. I swear, my husband has so much vacation and he gets all of these extra days off for just breathing. Very, very jealous. Of you. And him.

Jozet, it’s like you’re a genius. I love the idea of putting the figure skaters on the hockey bus. I’m a little concerned about the hockey team teasing the girls, but I love a free ride.

My town is getting an ice rink for the hockey team. It should be up by October. I can’t wait. OMG, I can’t wait. We had a figure skating board meeting this week and I’m authorized to start talking to the rink about contracting ice and moving our Learn to Skate there.

It’s five mintues from my house! Imagine how I’ll dance in the rink’s lobby. Imagine how I’ll put Ice Girl on her bike. Alright. It’ll be fall/winter, but still. A gal can dream, right?

Let’s face it: I make good scones. Competition schedulers will do just about anything for my scones!

You are a busy gal, Denise! Ice Girl does figure skating, off-ice, and ballet. Really, it’s all figure skating. She’s in chorus at school, but she hated the clarinet (anyone want a clarinet?). This is all we do. Of course, with teaching Learn to Skate, practice ice, and lessons, it’s about 20 hours/week in the summer and 15 during the school year. Who has time for anything else? I guess homework, but that’s done largely in the van.

When I interviewed for my current job, I was totally up front with my employer. He owns the company and is very cool about my working hours. Anyway, I told him that I have a figure skater and ice times are crazy. He was very understanding and doesn’t mind that I take time off to shuttle her to the rink. He’s fine with me changing my schedule. I know I’m very lucky!

Thanks! I’m hoping her brackets are good enough. Of course, I wouldn’t know if they are or not, I’m just parroting what other people say.

For parents, moves tests are frustrating. I have no idea what makes up a good moves test beyond edges. I just sit in the stands, nervous and bored. It’s weird, being both nervous and bored, but that pretty much sums it up.

I’ll tell her you said good luck. Thanks, Jenny!

I have a (crappy) rink across my house so on Tuesdays and sometimes Thursdays too, I am able to make it for 5:30-6:30 pm freestyle. Other days they have freestyle 4;30-5;30 but I take the train from downtown Chicago so I don’t make it home in time for that. On Saturdays hubby drives me (we only have one car) to my private lesson which is at 6:30 am. Then he just hangs out in the viewing room upstairs where there is wifi. He used to watch me the whole time, then he bought a new laptop so now it’s browsing and fantasy football for him while I’m out there I’v been told that there aren’t many husbands like mine who don’t have a problem waking up at 5:30 am to take the wife to the rink. LOL. After my lesson we go to my mom’s for breakfast and then do our grocery run/errands etc. He said he does feel good about starting the day early which is why he doesn’t mind tagging along because otherwise I would just drive myself.

In the winter time I go skate at Millennium Park (outdoor ice rink) after work, however depending the day of the week this could mean choppy ice, dodging crazy kids and curious tourists. So I don’t do much beyond stroking, crossovers and some Moves in this case. But if it is empty in the middle (usually on a Monday/Tuesday early evening) I would do some jumps and spins.

My work did let me take off to take my test, but that was counted as a PTO. I wasn’t sure how long it would take so I asked for the whole day off instead of just a half day. How I wish I could skate at lunch and come right back, but then other than Millennium Park there’s no rink near me and I can’t come to work late or keep leaving early cuz I dont want to jeopardize the job–which pays the skating bills

Oh and I’m glad I dont work on weekends coz that would put a dampen on my lesson time, or if I want to do public skate !

My parents are both doctors, who, as you said, are depended upon by patients. They can’t just leave. About a mile down the road there is a bus which goes straight into the city centre and from there its a 20-25 minutes walk to the rink. This obviously involves quite a bit of walking but I don’t really mind, I just tell myself it makes me fitter.

Another way I can get to the rink is to wake up at 6:15am and go into work with my parents and then catch the subway which goes through the city centre and stops practically outside my rink. I tend to take the subway there then walk to the city centre and take the bus back home. Its just easier than if I went back to my parents’ work because then I’d have to wait around until they finish works at 6.30pm.

There’s no other way in which I could get the rink from practice ice or lessons so I’m fine with it. The bus and subway fares do add up but compared to fuel costs, its really not that bad.

Wow! The way you describe it, being a volleyball mom sounds like a spa experience! I’m in!

It does sound lovely, doesn’t it? The downside: Ice Girl’s kind of short. Oh, yeah. And she doesn’t want to play volleyball.

A gal can dream, right?

When I mentioned the hockey bus to the girls, they were a little concerned about the stink. That’s rich coming from at least one skater I know of who needs to keep her skates away from dining rooms and areas where polite conversation is held. Pee.Yew.

And whoa! Congrats on the close ice rink! We have a rink that’s five miles from us, but yes, mostly hockey ice. I beg and plead and send over fresh brownies once a month to request a freestyle session here and there. Little by little, we’re getting more freestyle ice.

The sports facility/rink near us (with very little freestyle ice) has a weight room and conditioning classes for soccer/football/hockey players, trampolines and dance/stretching classes for the cheer team housed there…it would make a world class skating summer camp facility. Anyone have a few bucks to go in on it with me?

No help here either– nobody in our town except one adult skater and I am trying desperately to figure out if she can give jumpingbean a ride home at least one time a week even. Grandparents have no interest in helping out.

Hey, yes, I forgot to say good luck to IG today. I used to get so nervous for moves tests that I would never watch… I was always glad that it was usually my husband taking her to the test! I’m sure IG will do fine!!! Best Wishes!!!

Oh yes, I am stunned that a nine year old girls skates can smell so bad

haha, could you imagine putting a ice boy on a hockey HS hockey bus? no way…at least the girls would get constructive (?) teasing. hmmm well, you know what I mean, maybe they might be flattered…You know like all those Cutting Edge Movies… LOL

I was just worrying about this very topic! I have to scramble every time they change the freestyle schedule. Getting to the rink is especially difficult for us once school is back in session. Because of work I can only do early mornings (6 am – ugh) and weekends. My daughter goes to school out of town, at least a 35 minute drive from the rink. To drive from my office to the school and then the rink can take over an hour in traffic – by then the afternoon freestyle sessions are over. I’ve never had luck with carpooling because I live far from the school my children attend. But I am hopeful I can network with some other moms in our skating club that attend the same school (there may be one or two). At least if my daughter can hitch a ride to the rink with another skater – I could offer to pick them up after work.

You’re right, unfortunately… a figure skating boy might have a tougher time of it. *sigh*

I think the girls have enough sassy come backs they could get away with.

I’m an adult skater who’s working from home at least until January. There’s been a public session around lunchtime during the summer that typically doesn’t attract many people. Sometimes, I sneak away from work and try to get in a little ice time. But if you tell anybody that, I’ll totally deny it!

You lucky dog: lunch time ice. Ice Coach tells me we have lunch time ice at one of Ice Girl’s rinks. $2/hour. I’m so jealous of one home school family I can hardly look at the mom. She’s my friend, but every time I think of that empty $2 ice, I start to become so envious I can hardly speak!

Don’t worry: I won’t tell!

I am REALLY bad at volleyball, so I am pleased that I have finally found a sport that I am good at! I wouldn’t change being an Ice Gal for anything!