When we had three kids playing sports in one season (T-ball, baseball and softball in one year) we had to make some changes to preserve our sanity and make the season delightful instead of painful. The first one was designating a laundry basket for all clean sports clothes. When the special socks, shin guards, shirts, and pants came through the wash, they all went into that basket and not into the children’s individual rooms. This saved so much trouble. We also had a specific basket by the door where all the special shoes went. Because they could get pretty dirty I did not want to put them in with their regular shoes or carry them through the house.
Next, we dramatically simplified the meal plan. At first we bought some meals at the ball park which meant we were paying top dollar for low quality food. Quickly we decided sandwiches and cut veggies and fruit brought from home were more nutritious and far cheaper than ball park food. For a the heavy sports season, that was going to be good enough. If you have kids who love to buy a treat from the concession stand, set a weekly dollar limit and let them budget that amount for themselves.
At the end of the evening, white pants plus kids in the dirt was another problem. For inexpensive stain removal, I found that a bar of Fels Naptha soap moistened and rubbed on the stains worked better than the high priced spray alternatives. The older kids were able to do this for themselves and did not cause a bunch of waste the way the spray variety did.
Since our kids were vastly different ages, we had a bag packed permanently in the van with some ball park toys. These were toy trucks and cars that could stand to get dirty, and could also be shared if another child approached who wanted to play.
The final thing we did was to set some boundaries at the beginning of the season. For us, it was to be the only outside activity for the season. We also played no games on Sunday. When a rain date caused a schedule change we considered whether it was worth it for the kids to play.
After a few seasons where ball seemed to rule our life, we decided that we did not want to focus that much time and energy on sports. We did not plan for any of them to become sports stars so we transitioned to activities we thought could serve them more in their adult lives. We did still do the occasional church sports team that had limited practices and just let them learn the fundamentals of a sport and get some exercise, but did not consume the whole family calendar. We became OK with just one parent attending these games at a time and freeing the other parent to do things with the other kids.
