THSCC Forums

I spoke with Dustin about this last year but would love some additional feedback and a few suggestions (approvals?) from current officers:

My wife and I usually have to bring our two kids with us to autocross days. They are 7 and 4 years old. It is usually VERY difficult to juggle the kids/autocrossing/working at stations/running back and forth/eating lunch/getting kids lunch/bathroom breaks/well....you get the idea. It's really frantic and I can recall one incident in particular last year where my wife got barked at because she was about three minutes late to her worker station (she was the third of 3 people at that station.)

Are there other ways we can help, either during autocross days, or during other events such as Novice schools, etc that would count as "time worked" where we wouldn't have to rush to worker stations at the cost of EVERYTHING else. We'd love to help as much as we can, and feel that we need to put in the same effort as everyone else.

Tech
Registrar
Timing and scoring*
Chief of timing (not sure if that position has been brought back or not)
Work twice
Waiver sheets

Tech and Waiver sheets get one work assignment done in the morning, maybe both. It does cut into car-prep and course walking.

Same thing for registrar (though that position is generally set well before the season starts).

Timing and scoring gives you a fixed time, so it's more predictable.

Patrice has done two work assignments for years. He got to escape the kids (we all know that's the real reason), and Kathy took care of them while he worked.

It used to be Chief of timing set up the equipment on event day and also made sure it stayed maintained during the course of the season (sending things out for repair, inspecting plugs, etc).

Scott

It may be time to discuss the family fun area again. Not that there would be a babysitter per se, but more understanding people that would be willing to make sure that your rugrats play safe and supervised. If we do choose to revisit this, we should probably make it a little more formal and make sure that there's a clipboard with Cindy Lou's mom's cellphone number on it just in case Cindy Lou scrapes her knee and mommy needs to come in from station 3 for a little bit. Maybe Whitney can create a spreadsheet.

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Has no responsibility whatsoever.

Two words Velcro Wall

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George Bright Member # 141
One of the youngest of the old farts.
Yes I voted against you joining the club.

two front gate shifts?

Last year, as Wes alluded to, several families got together and pitted together so that someone would be available to watch the kids while parents either drove or worked. I think it’s a great idea, but that it probably should be done independent of the club’s sanction. You’d probably need to ask Bowie, but I doubt the club’s insurance would cover any mishap, officially.

Patrice is a standup Dude to handle his and Kathy’s situation by working twice. That just takes care of the whole thing.

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SCCA Solo Triad Award Recipient 2014
SCCA HSL National Champion 2012
SCCA DSL National Champion 2013
SCCA DSL National Champion 2014
NCR National Driver of the Year 2012
THSCC Heel of the Year 2011
Former Club Secretary
http://www.petscompanioninn.com

Taking kids to an autocross unfortunately makes a fun day seem a LOT more like work than it would seem. Kendra and I have tried to take our son (also named Nathan!) to events, and even with the Kiddie Corral tent-city, it makes for a lot less enjoyable of a day than going solo.

We never came up with a good solution. I cut back my autocrossing, and Kendra just about quit altogether. I figure once the kids are older I can start taking them again.

Now we're working on getting my parents to move to NC. Problem solved!

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

Like said, 1 working twice will do it. When Kathy is running I will be with the kids and with the run order it happened usually at lunch time.
The kids are older now and can be almost left alone, but they are now at an age where they are fighting each other. So one of us almost need to be there to be the referee.... Also at that age it is more difficult to convinced them to come pass a day at an AX.... We didn't really have plan yet what we will do for AX this year but it might be that I will show up alone once in a while with the Miata and be the spoiler in STS2....For the one that didn't saw Olivier lately he is almost as tall as me, and I can now wear is shoes if I want, but probably not for long as they will be too big soon.... he turn 13 yesterday.

A few more days in Germany for me and it's back home. The family is back home since last week, they like the trip over here.

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Patrice
1973 911 former track and AX car.
2016 VW GTI
2002 Nissan Sentra (Olivier car)
2012 Nissan Juke (Kathy car)
2010 Suzuki Kizashi (Audrey car)

What Mike said x2.

Eric will usually try to get a morning work assignment (such as gate duty) and I work in timing. That predictability helps us plan the rest of the day.
When we drive the same car, he usually stays in the grass with the kids next to the grid area while I run Grid A and then we'll switch so he can run Grid B.

We've also gone so far as both of us coming out, but only one of us driving. Or, we split events - he goes to one and I stay home with kids, then I go to the next one and he stays home.

Our latest idea is to bring a babysitter with us to the event. My neice was totally on board with this money-making opportunity until I told her how early she would have to get up!!

Since your kids are a little older, reviving the Kiddie Corral/Family Area might be a good answer for you.

Great feedback so far. I've already sent the entire season's schedule to "Grandma and Grandpa" to see what they can help with. I think we've got coverage for about 5ish events.

A little creativity on our part will probably get us through the others.

Thanks for all the ideas!

And @ Gwen, it depends on how the kids are acting as to who has the "easy" job. I'd wager Patrice is VERY thankful to get the worker assignments sometimes.

My suggestion is to dress them up in Orange and use them as pivot cones. Because experienced AX'ers are always keenly aware when a cone is out of place if they move from their "assigned" location it will be pointed out and they can be replaced before the next driver passes. this both cuts down on the expense of replacing the taller cones and provides about 80 built in babysitters.

Rob

While I agree with the "keen awareness", I don't get a "warm fuzzy" from that idea.