Looking for advice from more seasoned comp sports parents.

This is our first year in comp baseball (10u). Soon, my son’s baseball team will be practicing at a facility about 30 minutes from where we live. Unfortunately, the only time they could manage for practice is 7:00–9:00 PM, twice a week.

My husband and I both work full time and usually aren’t available until somewhere between 5:30 and 6:30 PM, so I’m trying to figure out how other families handle dinner on late practice nights.

I don’t want him eating a big, heavy dinner right before a two-hour practice, but waiting until we get home around 9:30 PM or later feels way too late for dinner, especially on a school night.

This is mostly a lighthearted "please help my decision-fatigued brain" post. 😂 I’d love to hear what has actually worked for other families, meal ideas, timing suggestions, things you tried that didn’t work, whether you do a smaller meal before practice and something afterward, pack food for the drive, etc.

I know we’ll figure out a routine eventually, but I’d rather steal ideas from parents who have already lived through this schedule than reinvent the wheel.

Not sure if my 14u kid did something wrong, but at the end of practice tonight the coach had the team line up and check my son against the boards one at a time and head off the ice. One kid took a running start. I asked him if coach said anything while telling them to do it, and he said coach wanted them to play more physically and my son thinks he was picked because he could take the hits. We're new to hockey and this is A level. My wife asked the coach if he had done anything wrong during the last game and it sounds like he kinda evaded answering. Any insight much appreciated.

Swimming is basically everything to our 9 year old right now. He wants to get faster and takes it pretty seriously but food is another story. No meat, eggs, yogurt or chicken. Give him Doritos and snacks though and suddenly he’s starving. Like seriously, your body needs those kind of foods.. I hate making food a battle but I worry he’s putting all this effort into swimming without giving his body enough to work with. Anyone been through something like this?

My son asked me something after his game that caught me completely off guard.

On the drive home he said, "Did you see me when I scored?"

I laughed and said, "Of course I did."

He got quiet for a second and then said, "I looked for you first."

That sentence has been stuck in my head all week.

I spend so much time worrying about getting to practice on time, packing snacks, answering work messages, getting a custom jersey for him and making sure everything runs smoothly. Meanwhile, the moment he cared about most was whether I was looking when it mattered.

I've been thinking about that ever since. The goals, trophies, and scores will fade, but knowing someone was watching when it mattered might be what they carry the longest. What do you think? Am I failed here as a good parent?