School concerts and Plays need your input please!

[pmagalei]

Approaching the end of the school year, My family has been busy with school related activities. A lot has been going on lately. This is the first we have struggled to try and make it to all of our 3 boy's after school activities. One is involved in both the school plays and concert, the other with a school play, and the third one with academic awards at the high school. All these events took place at about the same time and we are left with who is going to support who and what not. It is so difficult. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestion or have experienced this with their kids or grand kids and what worked for you?

[moonangel]

its like a coin toss. lol i know what you mean we usually try to go to either the graduations or the youngests plays. they are so darn cute when they are little. but we just try to rotate the others. you know next time it will be your turn.

[lvstephanie]

I know my parents had similar issues with my sister and I.... They'd do their best to try to attend each of our events, but sometimes there would be conflicts in time, and they'd just have to do the best they could. Sometimes it would be like what moonangel said, where this time would be my time but next time would be my sister's. Other times they'd split up so that mom might take me to a swimming meet while my dad took my sister to a basketball game. They've even tried watching both of us at the same time, but that wouldn't always work out as they'd expect... There was this one soccer tournament where we each had a game at the same time, on fields that were next to each other. They thought it'd be perfect as they'd just set up their chairs between the two fields, and whenever one of us got to play, they'd just turn and watch that game. However when we were put into the game, we became focused on the game and not on the spectators -- we'd only look at the spectators while sitting on the bench. Thus to my sister and I, our parents were always watching the other sibling play. So even in the perfect situation, my parents still had to smooth out hurt feelings from us kids.

[michele2042]

It's a difficult situation.   I would speak with the high school student and see if he would be okay with you missing his awards ceremony.   He's older so he's likely to understand and now a days so many high school students don't mind if parents don't attend their ceremony.   Perhaps offer him a dinner out at his favorite restaurant to celebrate his achievements.

[jkhanson]

I remember those days!

I used to have a pocket calendar and used different color ink for each child's activities.

Our kids knew we tried to attend as many events as possible, but you can't be in two places at one time.

Our kids knew and accepted that as LIFE. 

[aflyingmonkey]

We split if we have to.... mom to this one, while dad takes that one.  If it is a major event, like a concert, then they get all the extended family.   So far, it has only happened a couple of times where there is conflict.  Thankfully.

[pmagalei]

Thank you guys for your input. We ended up not attending the academic ceremony for my high school son. What a great kid! He said he will be totally fine. This was the first time we ever miss out on his school activity this year. HE said he doesn't want to miss his brothers' events. He told them the oldest will always set an example to his youngest brothers to follow. I love that kid!!!

[countrygirl12]

All you can do is one goes to one thing and the other goes to something else.  They always have several things at the same times.  Otherwise they would not have time to do all of them.  The kids should be able to understand.

You could always video the events so the other parent would be able to see what they missed.

[Penwoir]

As yet I haven't experienced that. But both my sons are very active in sporting related activities: wrestling and football. As they are in different age groups and classes, it means that their training happens on different nights of the week and in different locations. But worse, they're games are always on Saturdays and in different cities. It usually means my husband will take one of my sons to his match and I will watch the other. Then the week after, we swap over! We don't have any grand parents living in this country so we have to work hard to make sure the kids don't feel of secondary importance. What we do insist on doing, is videoing as much as we can in order that the other parent doesn't miss out. I would also be interested to hear if anybody has got any advice on this.

[reiddb]

I'm not sure there is a solution....I helped nanny my aunt's kids years ago. My uncle would go to one boy's baseball game, my aunt another's, and I would go to the little girl's t-ball. You just can't be there for all of it.=(

[alina6]

If there is a conflict we usually rotate and work with the rest of the family to rotate who attends what event so nobody feels bad.