31 Days to Surviving Sports Seasons Sanely:Intro and Gear Prep
Welcome to ‘31 Days to Surviving Sports Seasons Sanely.’
If you’re new here, I thought I’d share my credentials for writing this series. I have three children, ages 10, 9, and 8. My daughters are my bookends, just enough apart in age that they can’t ever be on the same team. We’ve been participating in our town’s rec league soccer since 2010 when our son was just turned 4 (I hadn’t found the league until then!). We’ve also done several seasons of t-ball and then coach pitch, and one year of kid pitch baseball. The children have played basketball two years. That’s two to three teams a season for the past 5 years. It’s exhausting but fun.
But I really wanted to write this series for myself. In the spring of 2015 we had soccer every day (except Sundays) for six weeks. Well, we had one unscheduled weeknight. And soccer overlapped with baseball and softball practices. I wore out physically and came down with shingles. I highly do not recommend shingles, and I think I had a relatively mild case. So, I decided I needed to make sure I thought through the best way to manage Sports Seasons Sanely and this series was born.
I’ve divided my 31 days into 5 weeks:
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Prep Week – I will write about how we prepare for a season before the season starts.
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Food Week 1 – The logistics of meals during sports seasons can be frustrating
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Logistics Week – How do we get where we need to go with what we need to bring?
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Tried & True Food Week 2 – some of our favorite, easy meals
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Family Time Week – How do you guard family time?
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| Sorting soccer gear this fall. My son needed new cleats, socks, and shorts. |
Today is the first day of Prep Week and my first way to stay sane is to find and sort all the necessary gear two weeks or so before the season starts. Who needs cleats? Where are the shin guards? Do we have baseballs still? Gloves? Hats? Shorts? Baseball Pants?
Here are some lists (in our leagues, jerseys are provided at the last minute):
Soccer:
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long sleeved sport shirt
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black shorts
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black warmup pants
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soccer socks
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shin guards
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cleats
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goalie gloves?
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soccer ball
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gloves & hats
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sunblock & umbrellas
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boots (for mom – cute is a plus!)
Baseball:
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baseball pants & belt
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baseball socks
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baseball shoes (our kids wear their soccer cleats)
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correct size bat
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batting glove
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baseball glove
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baseballs/softballs
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baseball helmet (with faceguard)
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sunblock & umbrellas
Basketball
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t-shirt & shorts
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tennis shoes (some kids have real basketball shoes)
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sweatshirt & sweatpants
All sports: Water bottle child can identify
I'm not a sports mom, but I think there will be lots for me here–organizing and dinner helps. Really looking forward to this month!
I hope any busy family could find some ideas. Hope it helps!