Extracurricular Activities for Kids

This week Melanie and Allison tackle the whirlwind of managing kids' extracurricular activities amidst the chaos of daily life. While one mom has her kid’s summer mapped out, the other one of us is not so sure how to make it through the next 7 weeks before school starts back up.

Melanie also shares her thoughts about dance recitals and wonders who made up this crazy 12-hour-long recital schedule for kids of all ages.

The joke’s on us though as we share how we BOTH were rear-ended within days of each other. Let the chaos ensue!

Timestamps: (Approximate)
4:35 Quick pre-birthday party errand
6:00 Car Accident Stories
16:00 Busy schedules and Summer Plans
22:45 Fireplace Nostalgia
23:17 Editing Video Projects
24:57  Kids' Activities and Schedules
40:35 Mall Walking
43:40 Reflecting on Parenting and Activities

Find Midlife Moms Pod on Apple Podcasts or wherever you find your podcasts. You can also find us Buzzsprout where we have a full listing of all our episodes, Instagram (@midlifemomspod), and Facebook. Listen, like, and subscribe! We hope you enjoy the show!

Transcript

Welcome to Midlife Moms, a podcast where two friends come together to discuss marriage, motherhood, and all things life can throw at you.

We're your hosts, Melanie and Allison.

Hang out with us while we discuss what it's like to be a 40 plus mom in this crazy world.

Welcome to this week's episode of Midlife Moms Pod.

I'm your host, Allison.

And I'm Melanie.

Well, we're co-hosts.

I don't know why I said, I'm your host.

You know why?

It's probably because I have a microphone in my hand.

Oh, that's right.

It's me showing off.

Yep, it's like a full on situation there.

Lifestyle change.

Yeah, total lifestyle change.

Maybe I should hold a microphone.

No, no, no.

I feel like I'm back in the customer service job that I used to have.

Oh yeah, because we're podcasting at night.

This is off our regular schedule, but Melanie and I both have very busy lives now.

And Melanie's going on vacation and with her fancy family, and we needed to record an episode this week.

So I said, well, you've got Tuesday night or Wednesday night, take your pick.

Yep, our kids are already in bed.

I'm podcasting in my son's room.

I forced him to sleep with his dad in the other room across the house.

Yep, so I've got my little computer here, my headset, my microphone.

I have to hold it because I don't have my microphone stand.

Well, at least yours didn't break.

That's true.

I take care of mine.

I thought I took care of mine.

Can you hear her barking?

Oh, really?

No, I cannot hear that.

She's literally in my face, barking.

That is the magic of noise canceling headphones.

This is off of her routine because normally right now, I'm upstairs with her asleep.

And of course, we're talking about Willow the Newfoundland, not my kid.

Is she going to bark the whole time we're on the podcast, do you think?

No, I think she'll eventually get over it and go sleep somewhere until I'm done.

And I did hit the record button, so we are recording, and it is picking up my microphone.

I can see the microphone moving.

So anyway, you can cut some of this off.

That's no problem.

Yeah.

So what were we going to talk about?

So how's it going?

How's it been going?

It's been going crazy over here because I'm packing and trying to make sure everything's done before I leave and somebody comes and stays at my house with Willow and the bird.

Oh, you're having somebody over.

I did not know that.

Yeah.

You know, I forgot about Willow.

I never thought about her.

Yeah, because of us leaving.

Yeah.

And I've only boarded her once, and it taught her how to bark.

Oh, well, she would have figured it out.

Well, right.

But I think that, or because they leave them, you know, when they're boarded.

They leave at like 630 and don't come back until in the morning.

And I'm like, I can't handle that anymore.

So I have a girl that comes and sits with her.

You know, way back in the day when I was single and living in Naples, I dog sat a lot.

Oh, really?

Yes.

Was that Willow?

You can hear now?

I heard that.

So I dog sat a lot.

I stayed over people's houses.

I loved it.

Mostly because I lived at home with my parents, and I was in my 30s.

I had just moved back from Massachusetts.

So I would babysit people's dogs and stay there.

It was wonderful.

Yeah, I used to dog sit when I was a teenager for people across the street and stuff like that.

But I have a girl that comes and sits with her, which is wonderful because not only does she stay with her the whole time we're gone, but she also works for a vet in case something were to happen.

At least she knows something that's...

Yeah, no, that's great...

.

for emergency situations.

Yeah.

But other than that, nothing's going on except trying to prepare for going out of town and making sure I have everything.

Yeah.

How's it going with you?

Yeah, so it's summer, and I thought it was going to be a great summer.

I thought it was going to be nice and calm.

I had Matthew's day camps all lined up, and all of that was great.

So last weekend, I was, oh, we had a birthday party.

No, I'm sorry.

Yeah, we did.

We had a birthday party.

I got distracted for a second.

Yes, we did have a birthday party at the ball field, so it was one of his baseball team players.

So I said, you know what?

It started at 11, and you know, like I always do, I put things off until the last minute.

I needed to go get, well, I had a birthday card, but I needed to get a gift card.

And then I thought, oh, I'm going to go get this book at Barnes & Noble that is baseball, and it's like about all the baseball parks.

And it's really cool.

It's full color.

It's like $20 book, but I thought it would be nice for his baseball friend who's like as into baseball as Matthew is.

So I had time in the morning to go run down to Barnes & Noble, come back, and I'm driving down.

You know when you make those decisions in life and you're like, okay, I could go one way, or I could go another way and maybe make the more scenic route, kind of avoid traffic.

So there was no traffic on San Jose Boulevard, and this is a road in Jacksonville where we live.

You said there was no traffic on that road?

There was hardly any.

It was a Saturday morning, and there was hardly any traffic.

That's why I took San Jose, because I was like...

I was going to say, because that's not normally...

Right.

So if not, I was going to go down Beauclair and go down like Scott Mill and go back in the back roads, all that.

So anyway, I stayed on San Jose, and a couple miles down the road, this car screeches their brakes.

And I look in my rear view mirror, and they almost hit me.

And I was like, oh, that's a close call, right?

So I keep going, and a couple miles later, we're at another light, and I'm sitting there, stopped, and all of a sudden, I'm hit from behind.

And I look up in the rear view mirror, and it's that person that screeched on their brakes and almost hit me the couple lights before.

They weren't paying attention at all.

They're probably on their phone.

Probably.

I was ticked.

I don't ever do anything.

I don't ever say anything.

I'm like, you know, kind of go with the flow.

Yeah.

No, I'm the one that says stuff.

Right.

So I was pissed, to say the least.

It's coming back to me now, all the emotions.

So I get out of my car, and I say to her, I'm like, so it wasn't enough that you almost hit me a couple stoplights back, but you needed to finish the job.

Oh, gosh, did you really?

I did.

That's amazing.

And out comes this little old lady from her car.

Oh, gosh.

Yeah.

But I didn't even think about it before I said it.

Like, I never talked to people that way.

Or like an older person, I would never say that.

I was so mad, because usually if you screech on your brakes and you're in like on a busy road, and you get a near miss, you're like, oh, thank God I didn't hit them.

And you're more aware.

I better pay attention now, whatever I'm doing.

But no, she hit me.

And it dented my car.

So like, if you know my car, I usually treat my cars very nicely.

But ever since I had a son who has a lot of friends that play at our neighborhood, my car is full of scratches from the bikes, from whatever.

I've got hit by a baseball at Bowles.

I've had somebody skateboarding, fall into my car.

It's pretty big, right?

That's another story for a different podcast episode.

So her hitting me from behind didn't do that much damage, but it was just that I was just so frustrated.

So I call Brent because it's been 25 years since I've been in a car accident.

When I was at UF, I got rear-ended.

So I'm like, what do I do?

So I called him, and he's like, well, you know, you exchange info.

And I said, should I call the police?

And he was like, yeah, you need a police report.

So I call the police, and we have to move off the road because we're blocking a lane.

And she says, well, let's not get the police involved because last time it took three hours for them to get here.

Last time?

I've got a doctor's appointment to get to.

She's a freak out flyer.

So yeah, so I was like, well, let's just pull over into this parking lot.

So she like comes over, you know, she didn't take off, but she came over, like we parked kind of next to each other, but not really because I was such a bitch.

Yeah, so she comes over to my car and she's like, did you call the police?

They're going to take forever to get here.

I really got to get to my infusion appointment.

I was like, well, I did call them, and they said they would be right over.

I gave the description of where we were.

I said it shouldn't be too much longer.

And I was like, I've got a birthday party to get to at 11.

And this was like 10, 15.

So meanwhile, I have to like do a lot of finagling.

So I had to call my neighbor, see if they could bring Matthew to the birthday party and explain what happened.

Then I was like, okay, well, I'll still stop and get a gift card.

Anyway, I was going to get the book, but whatever.

So 20 minutes later, maybe, the police officer shows up.

And young guy, younger than me.

Oh, gosh.

Oh, yeah, definitely.

I was like, okay, I'm feeling a little old today.

Nice smile.

Very cute.

He goes over, gets her story, comes over, gets mine.

I give him all my info.

Oh, by the way, she had told me that she'd look down for just a second, and that's when she hit me.

Oh, okay.

She really didn't have anything in her passenger side because the way she parked, I could see her passenger seat.

So I'm really not sure what she was fumbling for.

I think she was on the phone.

And I told the officer that.

Well, how old is Shae?

How old are we talking?

I don't know.

I say little old lady, but she, you know, my mom is 78, 77.

And she looks amazing for her age.

It's hard to judge.

Yeah, it is hard to judge.

I mean, this woman was very much smaller in stature, but looked older.

So I don't know.

But her car was banged up too.

From hitting you or from other things?

Other things.

So my neighbor came by to get Matthew's.

Oh, she needed to get into the house.

This is how chaos starts, right?

So I mentioned my neighbor was going to take Matthew to the baseball field.

And in order to do that, he's got to have his baseball clothes on, and he's got to bring his baseball bag.

Well, that's all in the house, and he wasn't at the house.

He was with my neighbor.

That's the other thing.

Matthew was not with me.

So when I call her, she's like, I'll come over to where you are, because it was like maybe three miles down the road.

I'll come over to where you are.

And do you have a key?

I was like, well, I've got my garage door opener.

I'll give you that.

So she took that.

She went back to the house to get his stuff so he could change and then go to the baseball field.

But while she's coming over to me, Brandi parks next to my car, and then she tells me, she goes, did you see that lady's car?

She's got like a big dent on the side.

She's got three dents in her car.

And I was like, well, the front is where she hit me in her front, but you couldn't even tell on her car.

So she's a repeat offender, yeah.

She's hitting cars left and right.

Yes.

I feel bad because she kind of looked a little dazed.

My cousin had to talk to me afterwards because I felt really bad about yelling at her.

And then I felt really bad that I called the police.

And she was like, you might be doing her a favor because if she looked like she was zoning out, maybe there's something wrong with her.

So anyway, to end this story, I'm nosy.

And the police officer went over to her car and he was talking to her.

So I couldn't really hear.

I rolled down the window so I could listen in.

She was cited for the accident, reckless driving.

She got a ticket, or maybe it was careless driving, reckless or careless driving.

$164 fine and three points on her license.

Oh, wow.

Mm-hmm.

She gets 12 points in a year, Brandi told me.

Brandi's an insurance agent.

She said, so she gets 12 points on her license a year before they pull her license.

Well, she must have points on there because if her car looks like a demolition derby.

Well, she's got three now from me.

Well, that was my Saturday.

Well, I was going to say, I don't even know what day it is.

That's where I'm at.

Yeah.

But last week, I guess it was, we were leaving Martial Arts, and we got rear-ended too.

I know.

That's why I'm laughing.

As we're sitting there, we're at the light, and I'm making sure the air's on.

Because I have Emily and Willow with me, so I'm trying to figure out if everybody's got enough air, and everything's going on in the car.

So I'm sitting there, and our car, of course, stops automatically, so I don't have to have really any kind of brake situation.

But all of a sudden, of course, we get bumped, or hit, I guess you'd say.

I have screamed, oh shit, as loud in the car as possible.

Of course, that set Emily off.

It's like, what's wrong?

What's wrong?

What was that?

And I was like, just be calm.

So I pulled over, we pulled into a bank parking lot, and she gets out, the girl gets out of the car, and she's like, I'm so sorry.

She's like, I literally just took my foot off the brake for just a minute.

And that was, and it bumped.

Well, I couldn't tell, because I mean, of course, it's a new car, so I couldn't tell what was on it, what was not, you know, my car.

So I told Tim, I was like, I called him, because of course, I'm all shaken up, because I hadn't been dealing with that forever, you know?

So I don't even remember the last time I got in an accident.

Well, yeah, I do.

I think I've rolled over a BMW.

But anyways, that's either here nor there.

But I called him and I'm like, what do I need to do?

And he's like, just get her driver's license and her insurance card, because he's like, if you don't see anything, don't worry about it, whatever.

So we didn't really, we didn't call the police or anything, but he of course gets home and sees, there's like a small like dent, but it didn't even set our sensors off on the car.

So he's like, if it didn't set the sensors off, more than likely shouldn't hit us hard enough to even register an accident, you know?

So he's like, I'm not, he's not going to take it in or have anybody look at it, because it's not really that big of a deal, you know?

But still, it scared him like, because Emily's like, what was that?

What's going on?

And then I'm like, stay in the car.

And she's like, no, I want to see what's going on.

I'm like, stay in the car.

Because then she's wanting to see, because it's, you know, something new and, you know, she's never been in an accident like that.

You know?

But she seemed, I mean, it was more just the shock of it, I guess, for her.

And I'm like, you just stay in the car.

Because then, of course, you know, you have your adrenaline going, so my legs are shaking.

And it's not even like anything horrible.

It wasn't like we got hit, hit.

And I've been hit really hard in the back before, in the back of the car.

And that's a whole nother situation.

But yeah, so we got rear-ended.

And I'm like, seriously?

There's always something.

When Tim goes out of town for work, I always have something going on, you know?

It definitely was the week for rear-end.

Raisiness.

Yeah, I know.

So annoying.

And I don't think I'm even going to get, I don't know.

I shouldn't say it.

I don't know if I'm going to get my car fixed, but I am definitely concerned about the engine pushing forward in the car.

And I own this car now, so I'm like, of course.

Are you going to have it looked at or no?

I will, yeah.

But that's just another thing I have to fit into my crazy schedule.

So it's been really busy at work.

I'm studying for a pretty big test coming up, and I have less than 30 days now.

Yeah.

So there's not a lot of free time that I have.

Well, how is your studying going?

You feel like okay about it or from what you've...

Well, you know, I took the test, or not took the test.

I took the class for it.

It was like a 10-week or 12-week class, I forget, but I took it back in February.

Now, I did download every single class that they shared with us, including the transcript, the Zoom calls, the chat messages, all of it.

So I still have all that.

I didn't really start studying until last week.

They recommended that you take all the baseline quizzes so that you know where you are to start.

So there's 29 different sections, and I took all of them.

I had started last weekend with like four done.

So that means I took, what, 20, 25 other quizzes this weekend.

So at least now I know where my benchmark is, but I have no time to study during work.

It's a test for work.

Is it something they require?

Yes.

So they're paying for it.

I need to take some days off so that I can get some good study days in.

But my weekends from now until July 8th, when I take this test, are going to be studying.

Oh, I thought you were going to say it's going to be baseball.

No, we're done with baseball.

Oh, well that's good.

So that's a blessing.

But yeah, I still have these.

You know, that's really the only time I can study.

Yeah, because you're working, and then you have Matthew and stuff at the evening.

It's hard to study at night.

It's hard to get in there.

It's hard to get your brain.

Especially after working all day.

Yeah, and it's busy at work.

It's not like there's any...

I do demo.

Twiddle in your thumbs.

I demo for a living, and sometimes I demo three times a day, and that's just demoing.

That's not the calls in between and all of the other stuff.

My brain hurts some days.

Yeah, I get it.

I don't have all that going on, and my brain hurts some days.

My brain hurts some days.

It's overworked.

Yeah, I get it.

Yeah.

Sometimes, you know, I was sitting there yesterday, and I had my head back on the porch, and I was just sitting on the chair, and I was like, you know, you think that you could just relax for a minute, and then you're like, no, because you're a mom, and you can't relax, because you always have to have your eye on your kid.

Mine was swimming, so I don't take my eyes off, really.

Right.

Speaking of kids and things and weekends and all, I've always been very interested in activities for kids and their schedules.

Shall we get into that, because it really, it really bothered me.

Yeah, I'm kind of lax right now, because Matthew is at day camp.

I don't really worry about him at day camp.

However, yeah.

What about your child?

I can't imagine being responsible for a little being all day the whole summer.

So my hat's off to you.

It's rough, because I am her playmate.

So how's that going?

Well, I still have to get stuff done, you know?

It's like, but then she's like, Mommy, let's play a game.

Mommy, let's go to the pool.

Mommy, let's do this.

Mommy, let's do that.

Which is fine, but it's a constant.

And like at school, you know, they're used to having friends there and they do all their talking and playing and all that.

Well, during the summer, I'm meant, unless we do play dates and things.

Right.

And truthfully, it's exhausting.

I bet.

It's exhausting.

My weekends are exhausting.

Yeah.

But I'm not going to complain because I never want to go back to corporate America if I don't have to.

Right.

I'd much rather sit down and do Play-Doh and Legos and, you know, a craft.

Totally.

Rather than going to a job.

Right.

Than I have to answer to somebody else, you know?

I know.

You get it.

This is the best job I've ever had though.

Well, that's saying something.

Yeah.

That's good.

I'm fortunate to have the job I do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's nice that you, I mean, like your job.

They always say, do what you like.

Yeah.

Well.

Well, I like naps and popsicles on the beach.

Right.

Well, I do enjoy those two.

They don't want to pay me for that.

Nobody wants to pay me to sit at the beach.

Unless you're like a travel blogger, right?

Oh.

You know what my husband said to me tonight?

He's like, you and Melanie should go somewhere so that you can blog about it or podcast about it.

And that would be your work.

That is a great idea.

Let's do a plane ticket.

Where are we going?

Where are we going?

Oh, that's...

I know.

I go to Chicago in like a week and a half.

That's the other thing too I have coming up is that I have a Chicago trip.

Been there once.

Been there a couple of times.

It's a lovely city.

All I remember about that city really is we went to visit Tim's mom when she lived there.

And there was...

It was so cold when we went that when we got out to take a picture at the Wisconsin thing that said like, welcome to Wisconsin and we took pictures out there and I'm breathed in that cold air.

I couldn't talk after that when I got back in the car.

It hurt my throat.

Like my throat was completely, it's like being stabbed in the throat.

And so I was like, yeah, my body's not used to this cold, me being a Florida girl.

And then we get to her house and there's fires, you know, lit in the fireplace, whatever.

I'm sticking close to the fireplace because the windows are open.

Yeah, my mother-in-law loved the cold weather that the windows were going through.

And I'm like, no, and you don't dare take a shower when the windows are open.

But especially if you have a fire going, yeah, especially if you have a fire going, sometimes it can get so hot in the room.

So nice though.

I love a fireplace.

That's what I miss about when we lived in North Carolina for those few years.

That's only probably one of the things I missed is the fireplace.

We have a fireplace.

We never use it.

Oh, I would be using that thing every.

I know.

Every year.

We've been here 11 years.

Every year I say, you know what?

This year, I'm going to build a fire.

You should.

And we have a fire pit outside, so we do that outside.

I remember in North Carolina, Tim's mom had a huge house there.

The guy was a mason who actually owned that house before her, and he built these beautiful stone fireplaces, and they were huge.

And with the family size that they have, it was nice.

We all could sit in a fire, and I would get up and sit on the stone and have that thing roast my back.

I'm the one that it says on the car outside is 105, and I have my heated seat on.

But I love a fire.

I love that.

Yeah, our next house, that's my goal is, I was like, I want a fireplace so bad, I miss it.

I'm coming over this winter and I'm making a fire in your fireplace.

Well, I need to get the chimney cleaned.

Yeah, my mom has a fireplace too and she never uses hers.

What is going on?

Yeah, I know we just don't think of it.

But every year I say, I'm going to do it this year because I want Matthew to have that experience too.

I grew up up north, so I remember very clearly having the fireplace lit and sitting near it.

Yeah, I love all that.

And at work, I've been editing video.

I had to make three videos for a very well-known fast food restaurant.

Yes, and I had to make three videos.

I'm not done with my third video, but I've had to do the video and all the editing that goes along with it.

I've had to produce the content, edit it, direct it, you name it.

Well, it's only me doing it.

I say direct.

You need to direct yourself.

I have to direct myself to-

Take a break.

Action.

So that has been tiring.

So I've been working overtime on editing in digital media lately.

Which is fine.

So you do it and then they-

What do you mean?

I mean, I guess I don't understand.

So you create a video.

So I demo the software.

So I have to create a persona, which means like, I am Harold, an employee of your company.

And I'm using the time clock to swipe my badge and clock in.

And here are the menus that I see.

And here are all the buttons that I push.

And this is what his manager sees.

So I have to do three personas.

One's the employee, one's the manager, one's the system admin using the system.

And so then I have to talk about certain elements in the video.

And then if I miss a word or like hum and ha, or lose my place, which I've done sometimes, it's hard to do a scripted video.

So then in the, in Camtasia, I'll put it all together and I'll just edit the audio and video together and slice it and dice it so that in the end, they just see one complete video with one talk track.

Well, now I understand.

So you can tell me later who you're doing it for.

Very interesting.

What are we going to get into?

Oh, kids' activities.

Let's, let's take a little jaunt down that railroad of crazy.

Well, I certainly feel like I'm not doing as many kid activities now that it's summer.

But baseball in itself seems like a lot if you think about the schedule.

And May was really crazy because May, we had a lot of baseball and we had a lot of end of school activities.

So I feel like now I'm kind of on Easy Street with kid activities.

Maybe that's why I'm like so la-di-da about it.

Well, and here's my thing.

So Matthew and Emily both have always done some sort of activity aside from school, like Matthew's baseball.

Emily's been dancing since she was 19 months and she's been doing martial arts since she was five.

So I mean, and then of course, we put other things in with that.

Like sometimes she wants to go horseback riding or, you know, like do art classes or whatever, you know, like an extra little something here or there.

But I mean, martial arts is one thing.

I like how they have that set up because they have what they call testing cycles and it's every three months.

And within that three months, depending on who you are belt wise, you have to get like for her, she has to get 24 visits within three months.

That's not unreasonable.

That's like her going twice a week.

So it's eight visits a month.

Yeah.

I mean, of course she can go more than that.

Their minimum is like two days a week.

And that's not unreasonable.

And then they have belt testing, which it's either on a Friday night or it's on a Saturday morning depending on your age group and what level belt you are doable, right?

Then you come into the dance world.

And I, for one, which I remembered today back when Emily first started dancing at school, when they had that special program after school, I was like, oh, that's great.

Well, I had forgotten that that lady had it at the Florida Times Union Center downtown.

And at that point, I mean, a child at six or five should not be out until midnight.

That's not a conducive way to handle things.

So when we figured out that that was going to happen, I said, no, not our age group kids aren't going to do that.

We're not staying because she was doing our school kids and she had her own dance studio.

So she had the full, her studio and the school do the whole recital at that one time.

And so from kids from her studio and our school kids did it.

And I'm like, no.

So I said to the girl that handled the activities at the school, I said, this is not normal to me at our school age kids to try to stay until 1130, 12 o'clock at night for a whole recital to be over.

I said, we need to be able to leave once our kids dance.

And so she handled that and we did end up leaving.

All the moms were like, oh, thank you so much because we didn't know how we were going to do that.

Because there was kids younger than Emily at that point too.

So we left early on that night, but we just recently had a recital where we were made to stay all night.

So we rehearsed.

So we rehearsed in the morning.

We had to drive all the way downtown to the Florida theater.

We rehearsed from 8 to 1130.

I picked up lunch on the way home because I was like, there's no way I'm going to have time to cook.

We've got other things we've got to do.

And so Emily ate on the way home because she was starving.

And I shoved a sandwich in my mouth when I got home.

And then we started all over again at 430.

I've had to do her hair and get her situated, make sure we had all of her recital stuff.

And back we went to the Florida Theater.

And we didn't get out of there until 1145 that night.

And we didn't get home until 1230.

And she was asleep by one in the morning.

And she's seven.

Well, I'm floored by the whole thing.

My big problem is that when it all was said and done, that age group, that's Emily's class, they should have gone first.

The recital was from seven to eight.

That was like their first part of the recital.

And then they had an intermission.

Seven at night.

So the first in the morning, what was that?

Was that just rehearsal?

Rehearsal at eight o'clock.

Why wouldn't they just do rehearsal the day before?

Because they wanted to rehearse at the Florida theater because they have to make sure the lights and the stage lights and the background and the music and all are good for that night, which I kind of understand that.

But it's like, if that's the case, let the littles go home after they dance.

I mean, by the time it was said and done and you go out for the final bow and the balloon drop or whatever, there was kids in the back just saying, I can't do this.

I can't go out there.

Just get my mommy.

I'm so tired.

Cause that age group is normally in bed by eight.

There's a reason why God made me a boy mom, because he knew that I would not handle that well.

I don't handle that well.

I mean, literally, I was like, I'm not doing this again.

So I'm not doing it.

I'm done with it.

I'm done doing dance places that feel that they need to have this big grand show at the end.

And I get it for the older ones.

Now for the older teenage kids, yes, that's amazing for them to go dance on the stage.

That's something that they are working towards maybe to do like dance academies, doing something in school, whatever it is.

But at seven, I mean, she knows she wants to dance.

She enjoys dancing, but she also doesn't handle being up at one o'clock in the morning well.

That's not a normal situation.

Yeah, no.

Right.

Nobody, like I don't handle that.

I'm 48 years old and I can't do that.

Well, right.

I mean, I lay down at nine o'clock and yeah, and I'm asleep.

That's ridiculous.

And I'll tell you even further, you have me at the Florida Theater at what time in the morning?

It was 11.45 when we were walked out.

Right, okay.

But you had to be there at what time?

Not to mention safety.

Right, but you had to be there at what time?

That night at six o'clock.

In the morning.

No, no, no, so the rehearsal, yes, the rehearsal in the morning.

That's my point.

We had to be there at eight.

So this is my point, is that if I have to be somewhere at 8 a.m.

and we don't get out until what, 11.30.

11.45.

Yeah, and you know.

So we've been there already for three, almost four hours.

And then I'm going home.

Guess what I'm doing when I go home?

Yeah.

Yeah, I did that.

And I'm sure, I was like, I set an alarm clock, because I was like, we had to get up so early, because we live far away from the Florida theater.

And I set a clock, because I was like, I know I'm going to go to sleep.

And the comment was, oh, everybody go home and take a nap.

Well, I have a child that doesn't nap, no matter if she's going to bed at 8 o'clock or at 1 o'clock in the morning.

Well, that's just unrealistic to begin with, because that lady should be fired.

Well, she owns it.

Now, she's a great teacher, and I loved her teaching, and Emily learned a lot from her, but I wish that the whole recital day was handled differently.

Even if she had the littles dance before the intermission, and let those parents take their kids home.

How many kids do you think there were that danced in that whole program?

I don't even know.

It was a ton.

I'm just trying to think of how packed the Florida theater was.

It was pretty packed.

Yeah, it was pretty packed.

I mean, we only had one side because the ones that weren't dancing first, which was Emily and her little group, they got to sit in the balcony and watch the first part of the show, which was great.

That was a great experience and it was fun to watch for them.

But to me, if it were me, I would have had all that age group from 3 to 12, let's say.

Everybody should have been in the front from 7 to 830 or whatever it was until intermission.

And at that point, let those kids go home unless they have other dances they're going to be in.

But it was ridiculous.

And the other thing is, she was talking and saying that one of the girls was in 15 dances.

Now, of course, it's an older girl.

Who is probably destined to be in the New York Ballet or something.

You never know.

But she was in a lot of dances.

That's a lot.

And those costumes are not cheap.

I mean, I think Wiseman is who does the costumes.

And I think his, I've always paid like $85 a costume.

That's $1,275 if she's doing 15 dances with 15 different costumes.

That's a lot of money.

I mean, it says a lot of money.

All I can think of is Tierra, Toddlers and Tierra's.

Totally different.

But yes.

But my new thing is, is I am, I signed Emily up for a different dance company.

And the girl that owns this place, she has Littles too.

So she gets it.

Right.

So her recitals are during the day and they're one hour apiece.

And once your child dances, she hands you your child off the stage.

And you get to sit and watch the rest of the show if you want, or you can go home.

Yeah.

So she kind of gets it.

And that sounds a lot better.

And it says, wear your kid out, right?

Yeah, I could do that.

So that's so I put her I put her back there.

That's where she started dancing when she was 19 months old.

And the only reason we haven't been dancing there this whole time is the schedules didn't work out because we're driving from school, you know, yeah, school.

And then the dance place is on the other side of town.

So it just didn't work.

But now I'm going to make it work because she's old enough that she can dance later in the afternoon and be okay.

And so we're going to get back.

And so when does that start?

August 1st.

So we don't have to.

Okay.

So that's August.

Yeah.

So we don't, I mean, we don't have anything except for martial arts now, unless she wants to do like horseback riding or something because she was doing horseback riding lessons too.

Oh, where do you do that in Jacksonville?

Well, we used to go to, I can't even remember the name of the farm now.

Anyways, there's a farm that her name is Kimberly, and that's who was her horse riding instructor.

And she moved farms.

But I can't remember the name of the farm she moved to.

I'll have to look it up.

But Emily keeps asking to go back.

So we'll probably go back maybe in the winter because it's too hot right now to be on a farm.

It's so hot.

With a horse.

I'm not into that right now.

I like indoor sport activities or dance.

I like anything inside.

Yeah.

So I can't imagine you sitting at a ball field.

And ball field, I mean, baseball has a lot to do too.

Yeah.

Well, we're done, but yeah, in May, we were on the field every weekend.

And I'd say April too.

So it was like April and May, but I am so thankful we are not there now because it's so hot.

Well, and not only that, but it's like, I mean, not only do we need a break from it, the kids need a break.

Oh yeah.

I feel like they need a mental break from that constant.

I didn't even sign them up for swimming this year because I've heard that's really a lot too.

Depending on what level you are and you know, I've heard people talk about it's a constant thing just like baseball or yeah.

And anything else since we were doing that in April and May, I missed well, I kind of missed the deadline to sign them up for swim club at our little club that we belong to.

It's almost a blessing because I was kind of tired too.

I was done with kid activities at that point.

Speaking of being done, that's what I'm talking about.

I'm done with, I mean, I feel like it's a constant.

I mean, it's okay for our kids to be bored once in a while.

Yeah.

I mean, I get it, having them in certain things and they enjoy it, they make friends.

It's good team building activities, whatever, but it's a lot.

Yeah.

And I think that's why they only have them like six to eight weeks to begin with.

And summer is really only 10 weeks for our school.

And we're on like week three already, aren't we?

It's crazy.

So I don't have him signed up for anything yet until the new baseball signups will come out July 4th.

They always post them on the 4th of July.

And then that will probably start.

I think the first game is like the last weekend of August.

So we get a little bit of a break.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think that's good.

I think that's healthy to have a break from it because I feel like it's just so much.

Like I don't know.

And dance really isn't that much.

It's one day a week.

But then after the whole brutal, spend all day boot camp and recital.

That sounds awful.

I was burned out.

Emily was burned out.

She was like, it was just a bow.

I was just a bow, mommy.

And we had to stay there.

She could have done that so differently.

Like she could have had the, you know, like the three to five age group or whatever go in the morning or first thing and then done their balloon drop.

And then I know or something or not even a balloon drop, but just, you know, the kids those that little, they don't care about that stuff.

I know all of it.

I mean, as Emily, I mean, Emily does love to dance on a stage.

Don't get me wrong.

But at that point, it's like, is she really going to be like, oh, I danced at the Florida Times Union Center, or I danced at the Florida Theater?

No, she's not going to remember that.

She's going to remember she got a pretty costume and she got to dance to music.

And her mom got to watch her and her Mimi got to watch her.

You know what I'm saying?

That's what she remembers, not the location at this point.

Right.

As she gets older, yeah, she might go, hey, I want to dance at whatever.

And at this age, she probably isn't going to remember where she danced.

I remember I took dance when I was little.

And I danced at the Burlington Square Mall one time.

But I was probably like 10 or 11 at that point.

We had one of our dances there, right in the middle of the mall.

That's interesting.

I'm an 80s kid, remember?

Right.

Me too.

Speaking of the mall, I need to get back into walking because I sat at my desk all day today, and I did it yesterday, too, because I'm in the middle of editing these projects.

And I look at my watch, and I have like 1200 steps.

Oh, gosh.

So I was thinking-

I need to wear one of those because I need to see how much I walk.

Yeah, it's eye-opening.

And so I was thinking tonight, I was like, oh, my gosh, I know where I can go walk.

The mall.

That would leave me to shop in.

You could be a mall walker.

You could.

My dad used to walk in the mall.

It was cold.

My mom's done that.

I don't like the heat.

I melt.

And I don't-

So I'm wondering, I'm like, gosh, I should try that out one day.

You should just do it.

Yeah.

There's not many malls left.

Now there's all outdoor malls.

There's not, but there's the Avenues Mall.

And I'm not too far from that, but I used to make fun of people who walked the mall.

I'm not going to lie.

So for me-

Now you're going to be that person?

I was like, oh my gosh, I should go walk the mall.

You need a shirt that says that.

I used to make fun of people that walked the mall.

Because I need to get some exercise in and I need to buckle down because not only I'm just ashamed that I only have 1,200 steps, because I'm like, oh man, I'm better than this.

Yeah, that's not a lot.

No.

I don't even wear one.

I should wear one because I never sit down.

Well, I bought one for my mom for her birthday, and then my dad also bought her a watch.

So guess who's watch she is not wearing?

Mine.

So you're like, give me that back.

Yeah, she will.

The other day, she was like, why don't you take this back?

Because I'm not wearing it anymore now that your dad got me the other watch, and I'm like, that's fine.

I'll put it on.

I'll see how many steps.

It's been a while since I've had a watch.

My Apple watch died many months ago.

Yeah, well, I had it for four years.

That's about as long as they last.

And it went swimming with me.

I haven't worn a watch since 2006.

The reason I know that is because they took it off my arm when I fell and got hurt.

And I never put one back on.

But I used to wear a watch all the time.

But that was my last watch wearing days.

Oh my gosh, that's a long time ago.

Yeah.

I just can't stand to have anything on that arm anyway.

But yeah, so the whole activities thing is...

We don't have it like most people.

But I do think it's a lot.

And Melanie, we only have one child each.

I know.

I can only imagine about Lori and her three girls.

I feel for her.

I feel for my friend Courtney.

So I try not to complain because really, in the big scheme of it, I only have one and yeah, but that is...

Activities are still brutal though.

I mean, the schedules of things are brutal.

And I guess I'm just...

I'm still...

I think you're a little...

Having a moment about the recitals.

I think you're burnt out with the recitals.

That's all we have time for this week on Midlife Moms Pod.

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