This is part of a series of youth sports articles sponsored by IHG Hotels & Resorts. With more than 6,600+ locations, 20 brands, and amenities and convenience at every property, IHG Hotels & Resorts is making life easier for traveling sports families.
As a veteran sports parent of two teenage daughters, I've lived through those weeks where everything feels like it's happening at once—big test on Monday, project due Wednesday, tournament all weekend—and by Sunday night everyone in the house is running on fumes and frustration. When your kid's season picks up, school nights can feel like a sprint with no finish line. Practice runs late, homework piles up, everyone's hungry, and bedtime shifts later than you wanted. The fix isn't more willpower or stronger coffee. It's a simple rhythm you can run on repeat.
Start with a ten-minute Sunday huddle
Pick a time that actually happens—perhaps Sunday evening just before the “Sunday Scaries” set in. Open the school portal, the team schedule, and your family calendar. Circle tests, papers, and late practices. Now choose two protected homework blocks for the week—usually one early in the week and one the day before the biggest deadline. Make a note in the family calendar or on the family white board. When the week gets noisy, that board becomes the boss, no arguments allowed.
Use the "homework-practice sandwich"
Most collisions are solved by moving a little work earlier. As soon as school ends, feed them a real snack (not whatever's left in the bottom of their backpack) and set a short timer. Twenty to thirty minutes is enough to knock out math problems, outline a paragraph, or review a study guide. Practice sits in the middle of the evening like the filling it is. After practice, you close the sandwich with a shorter finish block. Front-loading the heavy lift keeps the late block light and bedtime intact instead of negotiable. Make the right sandwich and the results are…..well, chef’s kiss.
Turn the commute into easy wins
The ride is not wasted time, despite what it might feel like when you're sitting in traffic for the third time that week. Keep a small "car kit" in reach: a novel, a to-go folder, index cards, and a pencil. Assigned reading can happen aloud while you drive—bonus points if you do the voices. Flashcards take three minutes at a red light. If a paper's due, have your kid record voice notes on ideas and transitions. Those notes become sentences later, which halves the after-practice load and your sanity preservation efforts.
Make one space the homework dock
Pick a spot at home that's boring and consistent—somewhere that screams "productivity," not "let's take a nap." A table, a corner desk, or the kitchen island can all work. Park a charger, a lamp, paper, and pens there so setup never becomes the first hurdle in an obstacle course nobody signed up for. When they sit, the brain recognizes the cue: this is where we start and finish things, not where we stare at the ceiling and contemplate life choices. And when you’re on the road, IHG properties make this easy with quiet corners in the lobby, business centers, and in-room workspaces. It’s a built-in “homework dock” no matter where the tournament takes you.
Apply the 45-minute cap
After practice, attention and patience are lower than your phone battery at the end of a tournament day. Set a hard cap for the finish block. Forty-five focused minutes beats ninety distracted ones every time. If the clock hits the cap and a concept still isn't clicking, stop, write a brief note to the teacher about where they got stuck, and go to bed on time. Sleep helps learning more than grinding late ever does, despite what your inner perfectionist might whisper.
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Build friction against distractions
Phones are homework kryptonite—they have a supernatural ability to derail focus faster than you can say "just one quick text." Use Focus or Do Not Disturb on weeknights. Charge devices outside the bedroom. If they need a computer, keep one tab open at a time and use a simple timer. Music is fine if it keeps them in the chair, but choose playlists without lyrics for reading nights, unless you want them humming instead of comprehending.
Keep gear and schoolwork separated
Two bags solve a lot of chaos and prevent the archaeological dig that happens when everything gets mixed together. A sports bag lives by the door with cleats, uniform, water bottle, and a thin towel. A school "to-go" folder lives in the backpack with that day's assignments, a calculator, and two pens. When it's time to leave, nobody is ripping apart the house to find the worksheet that somehow migrated to the bottom of the sports bag.
Protect the recovery window
Practice ends, and everybody is running on fumes like a car that should have stopped for gas twenty miles ago. The first fifteen minutes at home set the tone for the rest of the night. Quick rinse, small snack, and five minutes of nothing—no questions about practice, no homework reminders, just breathing. Then the finish block starts. That tiny reset keeps arguments low and focus higher than it would be otherwise.
Plan for tournament weekends without sacrificing Monday
Tournament Saturdays love to steal from Monday's brain like homework-eating gremlins. Beat that pattern by doing a small chunk of the biggest assignment on Friday after school. Between games, review two pages of notes or read one chapter, then stop—resist the urge to marathon through everything. On Sunday evening, run a short "close the loop" session: organize the backpack, check the portal, and set out clothes. Monday will feel six times lighter, guaranteed.
IHG makes travel planning easy for team parents and coaches. Start planning your trip here.
Help a stuck brain get unstuck
If your kid freezes like a computer that needs rebooting, lower the bar. Ask for one ugly sentence, not a perfect paragraph. Sit beside them for five minutes without rescuing the work or offering seventeen helpful suggestions. Set a small timer and promise a break. Momentum beats motivation every time. Once they start, they usually keep going—physics applies to homework too.
Keep bedtime non-negotiable
When the clock says it's time, it's time, no matter how much dramatic sighing ensues. If something truly can't be finished, send a simple note: "We worked steadily for forty-five minutes after practice and ran out of gas. He'll complete the last problems tomorrow." Teachers would rather see rested brains than midnight scribbles that look like they were written during an earthquake.
Conclusion: Choose one habit this week
You don't need a perfect system or a color-coded spreadsheet that would make productivity gurus weep with joy. You need one habit that reduces collisions. Start with whichever piece feels most doable right now—the Sunday huddle if you need visibility, the homework sandwich if timing is your biggest problem, or phone boundaries if distractions are killing focus faster than you can say "TikTok." Run it for seven days and notice the noise drop. Once that sticks, add the next piece. Small, steady changes beat late-night panic every time.
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Ian Goldberg is the CEO of Signature Media and the Editor of the largest and fastest growing sports parenting newsletter. He’s been recognized as an industry expert by the National Alliance for Youth Sports, the US Olympic Committee’s Truesport, and the Aspen Institute's Project Play. Ian is also a suburban NJ sports dad of two teenage daughters and has over 2,000 hours of volunteer time coaching them (which he calls the most fun form of R&D for his newsletter content). Ian and his team provide players, coaches, parents and program directors with the articles and content they need to have a great sports season. Ian has spent most of his career in digital product development and marketing and got his start at the White House where he worked for the economic advisors to two US Presidents.
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IHG Hotels & Resorts is committed to helping parents, players and coaches navigate the youth sports journey because we are members of your community too. Our IHG team is full of sports parents and coaches who have the same needs and challenges, and celebrate the same victories as you. So we partner with industry recognized youth sports thought leaders to bring you a refreshing take on youth sports.
