Delia and Ballet

[pegkerr]

Well, I have signed Delia up for an introduction to ballet class. We have committed to just nine weeks to start, to see if she likes it, and if she does, we will sign her up again.

Mondays will be very difficult. I get off work at 4:30, and will have to pick up Delia and get her to her lesson at 5:15. It lasts until 6:15. When Fiona switches to red belt, I will have to get her to the dojo by 6:45, and since it's a sparring class, I have to get her there early so she can kit up. I wouldn't have time to go home to get her, which means I'd have to take her with me to Delia's ballet class and take them both directly there. If I am continuing with karate (and I really have not made my mind up yet), my sparring class is immediately afterwards at 7:35 and goes until 8:30. What do I do with Delia all this time? And when the hell do any of us get dinner? They would have to get their homework done before 5:15, too.

If Rob could help with some or all of this driving, it would be a big help, but he is totally unreliable in the evenings, due to his job, so I think it's very unlikely.

Hmm. Mondays really are going to suck.

Comments

[naomikritzer]

Are there any carpooling options, for either girl? Is there any chance that Fiona could get herself to the dojo on the bus? I tend to think of 12 as "old enough to use public transportation independently," but that's going by the 1980s standards and I know that attitudes have radically changed since I was a kid. (When I was 13, my parents let me wander around London on public transportation by myself. It was great.)

[naomikritzer]

Oh, and I've been thinking that someone really ought to start a chauffeur business that would do nothing but escort children to their extracurriculars. They could call it "Three Places At Once."

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

There was one of those in Charlotte when I lived there. The problem (for me) was that they'd only pick kids up from specified schools -- they wouldn't pick kids up from individual homes. But, yes, a genius business idea if you can work through the insurance issues.

Personal chauffeurs.....

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

They do there called nanny's.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I'd be willing to let Fiona ride the bus, and I've already checked, but the official answer from Metro Transit is "You can't get from here to there." So there's no joy there.

[naomikritzer]

Well, crap. Could she ride the bus over from the ballet class? Or from school? Or from some point in between where you could drop her off?

Could she ride her bike, once spring comes?

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

She can't ride her bike with that huge sparring bag.

[naomikritzer]

Buy her one of those cheap InStep trailers for the sparring bag?

(Just throwing out ideas.)

I'm going to post to my own LJ soon about how driving my kids to activities is the most soul-draining, miserable part of motherhood to me. Seriously, I hate it.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Could you maybe drop the bag off there on the way to ballet, and she could ride her bike over without it?

Incidentally, my response to all this stuff has always been "If you want to do it, you have to organize how you're getting there and back", though I do adjust meal times somewhat, and I do live in a place with good mass transit. Also, I don't drive, so nobody expects me to drive them around.