As parents of young athletes, we spend an inordinate amount of time tending to our children’s athletic lives: driving to and from practices and games (and sitting on the sidelines during both); stopping for meals at Dunkin’ Donuts and Applebee’s; washing uniforms; buying new equipment; rummaging around the house searching for a piece of missing equipment; arranging carpools; packing coolers; sitting in waiting rooms at doctors’ offices, and the list goes on. Many of us even coach our children’s teams, which is basically a second job.
All of this time spent on our kids’ athletic lives, of course, means there’s no time for our own athletic or fitness endeavors. On weekday evenings, once our kids are fed, done with their homework and put to bed, we collapse. And figuring out how to fit in a run, or a bicycle ride, or a trip to the gym between our children’s weekend activities can be shockingly difficult.