How to Manage Busy Family Schedules | News, Sports, Jobs

Because children and families are involved in so many activities, many families have calendars that they refer to regularly to know where they need to be and if there are any scheduling conflicts to deal with, as well as to determine which parent it takes. which child where. (Photo illustration by Brett Dunlap)

PARKERSBURG — It’s all about planning.

When families are busy with their children’s school activities and extracurricular activities, it can be difficult to make sure there is enough time to get everything done. Scheduling and prioritizing will help families get to everything they need to get to.

Jillian Starcher, of Parkersburg, regularly has to balance the needs of her family with finding time for herself and her husband, Glen, to bring their 11- and 14-year-old daughters, Madelyn and Meggan, to everything they’re involved with. while making sure there is time for family.

Both she and her husband work full time, while Madelyn is starting sixth grade and is involved in fall softball, and Meggan is starting her freshman year and is involved in dance and is now in the Parkersburg South High Marching Band School.

“We rely heavily on our calendars” Starcher said. “I have one hanging in the house that is color coded for kids.

Parkersburg South High School student Ali Evans during a performance of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at the Peoples Bank Theater in Marietta. The production was a mix of local talent and professional actors. Evans is involved in choir, band, theater, 4-H, church youth group, National Honor Society, student council and dance competition team and has to plan her free time to make sure she can get to everything is involved. (Photo provided)

“Each activity is a different color, what day it is, where we’re going, doctor’s appointments, trips, meetings for important things at school and so on.

“We also have a board where we can write the times of all the after school activities.”

Her daughter, Meggan, has been dancing at the Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Academy for 10 years.

“Dance always gets us running, especially in the fall season when (the ballet company) prepares to perform ‘The Nutcracker’ for the holidays.” Starcher said.

They travel to area schools and venues that host the show during the winter season, Starcher said.

Meggan Starcher walks out of ballet class at Mid-Ohio Valley Ballet Academy in Parkersburg. Starcher’s family does a lot of planning so Meegan can dance, be in the Parkersburg South High School marching band and more, while her younger sister, Madelyn, plays in a fall softball league. The family has several calendars to keep track of everything involved. (Photo by Evan Bevins)

“That always keeps us on the run” she said.

With the older girl now in marching band, they are trying to learn how to balance the marching band schedule along with her dance schedule. Additionally, their younger daughter is in a fall softball league that Glen coaches.

Marching band practice took up a lot of their time last summer, Starcher said.

In many cases, they have a support network of other parents where they can take turns transporting their children as well as others to various activities. Starcher also has family that can help get her daughters where they need to be if there’s a scheduling conflict.

“We have created a very good village around us” she said. “We do a lot of carpooling with the other families.”

The family takes an annual camping trip and had to plan things because the trip overlapped with a marching band performance. Some of the family went on the trip while their daughter stayed and went to school, and her grandparents made sure she got to the game to sing.

Starcher said he drove two hours to be there for the show and then took his daughter on the trip after it was over.

“He decides to make these things work,” she said. “This is where families come in a lot.

“You have to compromise. You don’t want to skip out on the trip she’s been looking forward to, but you also want to support her in an activity she loves.”

It’s a matter of making sure the kids have those memories and experiences they’ll cherish and making sure their family is there in those moments.

“You have to figure out what’s important to you” Starcher said. “Don’t be too hard on yourself.

“Sometimes life gets in the way of the best laid plans and you just have to go with the flow.”

Ali Evans, a 16-year-old at PSHS, is involved in choir, band, theater, 4-H, church youth group, National Honor Society, student council and dance competition team.

“The big thing is we have this big calendar where we write everything down.” she said of her family. “We put everything in our phones to make sure we had everything together and didn’t miss anything.

“It works pretty well for us.”

The calendar helps them visualize what’s going on and see what’s happening each day. It also helps them see what overlaps and where the priorities are.

Sometimes he has to choose what he will go to in order to fulfill certain obligations.

“I try to see which is more pressing at the time” Evans said.

There are instances where theater and band auditions might overlap. She said she would probably audition for theater because if she didn’t, she would miss the opportunity to be in a show. If there was a competition of troops, she would have to look at it differently in how she decided what to prioritize.

There were times when she had to choose between two things she really wanted to do.

Last year, she had the state Math Day competition she wanted to attend and it was the same weekend as a choir competition.

“There was no way I could do both” she said. “The choir trip was in Nashville and the Math Field Day competition was here in West Virginia.

“They were both that Saturday, so it couldn’t work to do both. So I had to choose which one was more important. For me, it was the choir trip.”

Because she was in a choir, she felt she would be letting everyone else down if she didn’t choose the competition where the math event was more individualized and other people wouldn’t be affected if she didn’t go.

“I didn’t want to let my team down, so I chose the choir trip,” Evans said. “I think the most important thing is to plan ahead and see what you can do to make it work.”

The start of school always means things get busy with activities starting and more always seeming to come.

“I’m busy now, but it always seems to be busier,” Evans said.