Discussion: Family friendly start times

One problem facing families with young children in choosing to go orienteering is “Who is going to look after the kids?”. If both parents want to go for a run (or only one parent is in attendance) then the choices are often pretty limited; usually down to begging a responsible adult to keep an eye on them for a while “till I get back”. Places like Scandinavia are fortunate in having large attendances at many meets; so often there is a crèche or other possibilities for child minding that the clubs can organise.

This becomes more of a problem where start times are issued in advance as it usually doesn’t allow for sufficient time between starts. In many countries particular classes are allocated particular start blocks and running outside that block was considered “unfair”. The reasons cited usually involve the weather – conditions needed to be the same for everyone: either hot/wet/cold/snowing/torrential rain, whatever. Thankfully that criterion seems to be less of an issue than before and nowadays split starts or helper starts are often issued which allow people either to start early or late.

Split starts don’t completely solve the problem though. It doesn’t always suit families going orienteering to have both the first and last starts of the day. That’s a long time for young children to be out and about. A better solution is to allocate one parent/carer a fixed time and let the other person start off a start punch when they are ready. Theoretically that should work and help the first parent orienteer without worrying about getting back in time and allow the second parent to make their start comfortably. But even that isn’t foolproof (for example – British Championships 2013).

A better solution might be to allow both carers a start punch start; and leave some vacant spots in the start list for courses throughout the day. If orienteering wants families to turn up, and hasn’t got the resources to run crèches – maybe a more flexible starting arrangement is called for.

None of this should apply to IOF events such as World Championships where suitable arrangements can be made in advance. However it is a real concern if National Associations use the IOF Rules for such events and blanket apply them to lesser events where more flexibility is appropriate.

Or one parent should take a "pass" at that event. Kids are a priority, not necessarily the parents' wish to orienteer at a certain event. Parents' responsibility to find a child watcher if a crèche is unavailable. Split starts are great if you can get them, but in some cases untenable/unavailable.

Our small club had difficulty finding someone to man a crèche at the US champs this past weekend but we did our best because we understand the orienteering "bug".

Orienteering will cease to exist in some countries if parents do not get their kids into it.

In Australia, and from discussion I've heard also in Britain, it's basically impossible to run an event creche legally, as the various laws which apply to such things (everything from qualifications of staff to safety of facilities) aren't practical for a temporary facility to comply with. I'd be interested to know if this is such a problem in other countries.

Yup, you're right Blair. In the UK a creche has to have running water, a child specific bathroom and fully CRB checked and trained individuals before even thinking about opening. It's impossible for 95% of orienteering competition. Not like the O-Ringen where you drop off your child, it gets handed an axe, and has learnt basic woodwork y the time you finished getting lost in the forest!

I've found organizers in this part of the world to be extremely flexible in allowing split starts for our family. Early start for one parent; Late start for the other parent. Late start is usually on the start punch ... "as soon as you can get there". Sometimes late parent waits for early parent to finish, sometimes leaves child with someone else during the overlap in running time.

One additional challenge is taking the kids out on their courses, i.e., shadowing them. Nothing says fun like strapping a 4 year old to your back to go shadow your 8 year old, after you've already run a 2-hour Long course!

It is soooo nice now that the kids are old enough to look after themselves. Once older sister was able to run on her own and then shadow younger brother afterward, it was like heaven had arrived.

As someone who does many different types of sporting events and only got into orienteering a decade ago, I'm intrigued by the tradition of orienteering event organizers providing childcare at the same time as they are responsible for the preparation and execution of a complex event that normally relies 100% on volunteers. Organizers of adventure races, trail runs or mountain bike events - at least in our part of the world - don't face the same pressure even though they are also trying to grow participation. The parents I know just take turns doing events if they don't have a babysitter - or one spouse will do a map hike with his child rather than racing. I appreciate how difficult it is for parents to compete in sports but is it fair to continue to expect volunteer orienteering event organizers to take on such a precious responsibility?

Many event won´t have a start window that´s big enough that split times will help. I think it should be possible that you find some to look after your children during during the time both are out from the club or other orienteering friends. And in most other sports it is totally impossible that both parents participating as the event will start at the same time for all competitors. So I think orienteering is one of the family friendliest sports.

In the UK a bunch of mums (and probably some dads) have taken it upon themselves to set up a 'tent city' of mini tents for their own families which are placed altogether which then creates a kind of DIY crèche which seems to be working quite well?
I have to say that split starts seem a bit of a nightmare with a baby and Oli and I have been trying to take it in turns with events so far (unless the grandparents are on hand!).

The DIY "creche"/tent city seemed to work well at Easter 2011 - we called it a tOy tent and made sure that parents were aware that it was not a creche, but a place to share child minding and have kids play together. I think that gets around the legal issues of advertising a creche.

We seem to work best with an early (punch) start as part of the start list and a late punch start - easily fitting into any start windows.

We're only just at the stage of adding in the 7 yr old's course as well - as bmay said, this is heaps of fun with two other kids in tow. But, that's our choice and in a few short years won't be any issue anyway.

Agreed with the benefits of the DIY communal child-care. We've had great success with other families looking after eachother's kids*.

(* though admittedly we've done more of the child-dumping and less of the child-minding ... thanks Jonathan and Teresa!)

Agree that minding children is not part of the organiser's responsibilities. We've also done the group child minding thing when at home; it works fine, and might mean that one out of 8 parents misses a run. But we're finding that harder to do while traveling around the UK, where we don't know the other parents.

I was impressed with the "open" or punch start option that they gave Nat at the British Champs -- a pity that we mismanaged it, but I wasn't too bothered that I missed my own start, especially since the start team slotted me back into the lineup.

Seems that the best solution is to give one parent an early fixed start, and the second parent the option of an "open" start.