Erika RadisOwner at Working Moms of San Antonio

3: All over the place with kids in sports and activities? Same.

9 Feb 2023 · 14 min

Watch on YouTube

14:06

In this episode of the Working Moms of San Antonio podcast, co‑hosts Erika Radis and Marie Lifschultz discuss the realities of having multiple children involved in sports and extracurricular activities. They share personal schedules—basketball, football, lacrosse, softball, ballet, and more—highlighting the logistical challenges of practices, games, and homework, especially when events overlap. The hosts explore the benefits of activities, such as community building, teamwork, and social connections for both kids and parents, while also noting the unexpected intensity of youth sports and the pressure from highly competitive parents. Strategies discussed include using school‑based programs to simplify logistics, setting academic performance conditions for participation, limiting the number of activities per child, and coordinating family schedules to avoid burnout. Both hosts reflect on their own learning curves in unfamiliar sports, the emotional strain of missing family time, and concerns about future independence as their children age. The episode concludes with a call for listener feedback and suggestions for future topics, emphasizing the podcast’s mission to support working moms balancing career, family, and community involvement.

Chapters

Now, have you seen these people that have a number of kids and their kids are in 5 things each? How?
How do you do this?
How do you do this? Yeah, I always want to know, like, how are you functioning as a person? There are definitely parents that get super into it. Yeah. And I mean, we're into it. We're happy to be there, you know, but we're not going to be yelling at a coach.
Just fun. And I think it— no matter what, I think getting the kids out and being involved with the community or meeting people, yeah, I think it's a really good thing. We're Erika Radis and Marie Lifschultz, a San Antonio area realtor and lender, but most importantly, we're working moms.
The goal of this podcast is to provide support and a sense of community to San Antonio area working moms like us. So join us in trying to find a balance between career, family, and everything in between.
Welcome to the third episode of the Working Moms of San Antonio podcast, and this, I guess, week we're talking about having kids in sports and activities. I know that that's something that we both have in common.
We both, yep.
And I imagine a number of listeners do too. So yeah, I mean, just in starting out, obviously I want to say that of course having kids in activities is beneficial. I think it's great. Yeah, it's beneficial, I think, to them, and it's beneficial to us in some ways. We talk always in the group and in the first episode of our podcast about how as parents it's hard to meet other people.
Yeah.
And I do think that sports is a way for adults to meet other people as well as for your kids to meet other kids.
They have something in common, hopefully.
Right. You know, so I think that's really good. There's obviously also some struggles. It does take up quite a bit of time.
It's a commitment. Like, we teach the kids that, hey, if we sign up for something, we see it through. And sometimes like halfway through the season, they're like, I don't want to do this anymore. No, no, no. You commit it to the team and your teammates depend on you, your coach depends on you. Yeah, you see it through to the end.
Yeah, so I think that's a really good policy. Yeah, um, although like you say, sometimes it's hard to get them to be convinced of that information. Yeah, so yeah, so, uh, what all are your boys involved in?
So, uh, my youngest, I mean, all the sports right now. So right now we're in basketball season.
Okay.
So we're in that. Prior to that, we were in football. And then after basketball, we have, I think, track and baseball coming up.
Oh wow, you guys do it all.
Yeah, so it's a little bit, and that's because the school obviously offers it.
Yeah.
So we're in that. So we don't, we're not in the leagues or stuff outside of the schools right now, just 'cause it's easier to do that. But, and then my oldest one, it was football season and now we're into lacrosse. Which lacrosse is a new sport for us.
Okay, and so what does that look like weekly for you guys?
So we have practice Monday through Friday most days and games. So typically we have a game after school, um, 1 or 2 days a week for my youngest. And right now lacrosse is in the off-season. We don't actually have our first game until February. Yeah, so we're in the off-season. So right now it's just practices after school.
So, excuse me, so a very fairly busy week, fairly busy week.
So my oldest though, I had— I didn't— wasn't thrilled about the practice time because he obviously goes to school from 8 to 3:30, right? And practice for lacrosse doesn't start till 5:30.
Right.
But he is across town.
Oh boy.
And picking him up from school and bringing him home to do homework, then coming back would be difficult. So he actually stays after school and he is required to do homework between the time 3:30 to 5:30. And if grades— the agreement was if the grades drop, then he can't be on lacrosse.
Sure, sure. No, that's— I think that's a common thing that parents do, and we've done that in the past as well. Um, so yeah, I mean, I've got just— well, I've got 3 girls, um, and they're all in something. Not, you know, Emma, our oldest, um, she does softball and that's like her main deal. I know. Yeah, it's, it's fun to watch. The girls are getting so much better. They're learning to work together better, which I think is so important. We, uh, homeschool, so our schedule looks a little bit different. We don't have to worry so much about quick getting, you know, home and doing homework and heading off to practice. We've done that. You know, my kids have been public schooled, And that was a challenge for sure. So, but it's still busy, you know, I work full-time and my husband's also a real estate agent. And so, you know, between that and homeschooling and their sports and, you know, getting all that stuff done, it's a lot. Yeah.
And the other girls, what are they in?
And the other two are in ballet class. So that's actually just once a week. It's not that serious.
Got it.
Our ballet school, Studio right here in Bulverde. It's a wonderful studio. What I love the most about it is that it's so relaxed, um, and we are that kind of an activities family. So there are definitely parents that get super into it, and I mean, we're into it, we're happy to be there, you know, um, but we're not going to be, um, yelling at a coach, and we're not, we're not going to be scolding our children for messing up or those type of things.
Those parents that do, that really get into it. Oh yeah, very passionate about it.
Yeah, yeah.
So I was super surprised, um, in the softball season, really how intense it can get in the, in the spring season. Um, and my oldest is gonna be 11, you know, in a couple of weeks. So, you know, we're not talking high schools. In high school sports, I understand like the level of intensity a little bit more, but like when they're younger, it just can get Um, more intense than I really imagined.
Understood.
Yeah, so there's that side of it too. So obviously when you— while it's nice to make new friends for them and for us, yeah, um, there are all different kinds of personalities out there, you know, either on the field or in the studio or whatever you guys are doing. Um, and so part of parenting and having kids in activities is dealing with different personalities. Yes.
And I think the kids have to figure that out as well because you have some that are really— I would use the word cocky and they get offended, you know, like, so we didn't start my boys, so they, they did not start into sports probably until later in elementary school where a lot of kids, you know, especially baseball is a big one, right, um, for boys. They start off in like Little League or like 3 years old, right? And we, we just at the time didn't think, like, yeah, we just don't have the time. We didn't live in town at that, you know, when they were that young. So driving in to do stuff was difficult. And we both, obviously my husband and I both work full-time as well. So it was hard, like, eh, we'll get to it. Well, I felt they were probably behind knowing the sport and how to do things.
Yeah, we've been there too.
And then once they really got involved with it and we really were like, hey, we're going to commit, we're really going to be part of this and be part of the team, COVID hit. So they really, really wanted to play and then we couldn't get enough enough players to play.
Oh wow.
Yeah, so my youngest was really, really disappointed. He actually turned out to be a really good pitcher, you know, just kind of a little bit of natural talent there, and fell behind because he kept wanting to be on the team and they couldn't get enough players to play.
What a bummer.
So that was a really big bummer on that. Um, so that's kind of part— but then we got involved with, you know, with, with a lot of, um, parents that had been involved for a long time, and them themselves were players. You know, and when they were kids and whatever. So very passionate.
Yeah.
And that's where they put a lot of their time and efforts, where we were like, hey, we're just coming out for fun, we want to be part of the team and make friends. Where there's some people who take it very seriously, like it's, hey, we are working for a scholarship, right?
Right.
Well, we're not there. Yeah, yeah, we're not there.
We're not.
Yeah. So yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that, it just is different when you come into it not understanding that you have some people who are really competitive.
Yeah.
I mean, we're— we love to win, we don't like losing, we want to win. Of course. But at the end of the day, it was a game for us, where some, it was, you know.
More serious.
They work hard at it. And it's great. So, yeah, so different personalities.
Yeah.
It was different.
I know something that I, this is just us in our household, I struggle with the fact that my girls don't do the stuff that I really know anything about.
Yeah.
So, like, soft, I mean, I understand the rules, of course, and all of that. I played maybe for one year when I was a kid. Um, I primarily played soccer when I was a kid for really a number of years. And so that's really what I know and remember.
Yeah.
And so I never danced. I didn't play softball really. I didn't do anything else. And that they love all that stuff. So, you know, while, um, I'm excited to go, I don't always understand what's going on. I don't necessarily know. I don't necessarily know if they're like improving, you know, especially like in ballet, like they seem to be doing what the teacher's doing, but I don't know if they're, if it's good. I basically have to rely on the feedback from the coach or teacher to determine if they're actually making improvements in the class or not. So that's something I'm gonna do.
I didn't understand that.
Like, I didn't know. I mean, we watched football growing up with my dad. Yeah, but I didn't understand the rules. I'm like, where's the ball? I'm always following the wrong guy. Like, who has the ball? It was so frustrating. And now look with lacrosse, I'm like, the ball's even smaller. I'm like, I don't know what's happening. Yeah, we're still learning. I think it's a mixture of hockey, soccer, football all in one. Like, right, it's— I don't know what's going on. It's just fun. And I think it, no matter what, I think getting the kids out and being involved with their community or meeting people. Yeah, I think it's a really good thing.
I do too. I think it's good. Um, now have you seen these people that have a number of kids and their kids are in 5 things each? How, how are they doing this? Yeah, I always want to know, like, how are you functioning as a person?
Why have the balance?
Yeah, what we do seems like a lot, and what we do is minimal compared to some of these families that have people and their kids that are involved in so many things.
Yeah, well, we have Tyler, Tyler's my oldest and he kind of gets to be the guinea pig. So he gets to try whatever. And I had to actually tell him, hey, hey, you have a brother. Like I have another child, you need to calm down. We cannot be in everything, at everything all the time. Like we gotta, you know, use some time up for your brother. So now that Aaron's gotten older, he's more involved with stuff and we have to make time for both games. And so sometimes it means myself, I'm at one And Roger's at, my husband is at a different game and we might not be able to see both because now that they with the school, school events tend to happen after school at the same time. So especially if they're playing the same sport. So during football season they both played football. So I'm rushing across town to pick up one to get him over to the game so he can see his brother play. So it's difficult and I don't know how people do it and eat dinner and work and, and, and, and.
I was having a conversation with one of the ladies, um, actually in ballet class, and she has a daughter that does ballet and she also does piano. Well, she saw, I don't know, her sister or a friend or something— yeah, playing, uh, tennis. And so the, the daughter wanted to then pick up tennis, and the mom was like, that's 3 things. Like, she— they kind of limit her to the— her 2 favorites.
Yeah.
And so I think ultimately she decided to stick with the piano and the ballet.
Okay.
But I think it's fine and healthy, um, to put that limit. You know, you also don't want to overstress the kid, right?
Well, no, and you also have time for homework.
Yeah.
And sometimes you just want to bum around, you know, and that's healthy too. I think doing that sort of stuff is super important as well.
So do you guys have where your child's in multiple things and have multiple, maybe multiple children, and how do you attend it all? Yeah, like, how do you want to—
we want to know, we want to know your secrets.
Like, I get kind of jealous when I don't get to see my husband, or, you know, my husband's with one and I'm not with them, and I'm like, I have a I'd be out in the heat on this game, right? On this one.
Yeah.
But, um, so yeah, it's, it's hard. It's hard to find a balance. And but I do, at the end of the day, I do truly feel having the kids in whatever activity, if it's music, if it's, you know, dancing, if it's sports related, it teaches them how to work with a team.
Yeah, work with others, right? And they're gonna need that. They are.
They're gonna need that. But, you know, since we've been so, uh, separate for so long, I think it's a really good thing. And I'm glad it's all coming back, and I look forward to more And I, I don't know what it's going to be like when the boys are old enough and they don't need us to take them places.
Oh, I know. I don't want to even think about it.
I'm a little scared about that. Yeah, because I guess, I mean, as they get older, it gets faster and faster. Like, wow, I can't believe we're here. Yeah, like in my head I'm like, I have 4 more years with him.
Like, I know it's easy to complain about having to run around like this, but I'll do it all day long.
Yeah, I'll do it all day long. So, and I, and I, and also with having that, it keeps us from, my husband and I, being able to socialize. Right, with other our friends, or, you know, some— they were all at different sporting events.
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
Cool.
Well, I think that was a good little segment on sports and activities and parenting. And so if you guys have any, um, comments, please comment, um, on this topic, or if you have any suggestions for other topics, you can email us. Um, yeah, and share the—
share the activities your kids are in, because there might be stuff out there. Like, I know there's kids that craft and draw, and we don't know any of that stuff. I want to know about that stuff so we can do more things. Yeah, um, but yeah, please leave a comment or a like, share, let everybody know about our podcast.
And yeah, and yeah, we'll just, I guess, see you guys next week.
Next week, guys.
Thanks.
Thanks so much for tuning in to the Working Moms of San Antonio podcast. Be sure to follow us on social media at our respective Instagram accounts or join our Working Moms of San Antonio Facebook group. Those links can be found in our episode description. If you have an episode topic suggestion or question, please email us at office@erikadisagent.com, and be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. See you next week!