"I can't, my kid has practice." Sound familiar?

As sports parents, we spend hours out of our week taking our young athletes to and from practices, games and other team functions. So many hours that sometimes that we neglect doing things for ourselves.

Today, I'm sharing five tips for making the most of YOUR time at practice!

1. Read. Take your Kindle, a magazine or one of your favorite books. Reading helps stimulate the mind, improves your focus and concentration and can even help reduce stress.
2. Exercise. Walk or run laps around the field. Use the bleachers for stair exercises. No field or bleachers? You don't need a lot of room to hit a few squats and lunges. This can even be a group activity for other sports parents who want to get a workout in!
3. Plan. Pull out your planner and get ready for the week. You can meal plan, write out your grocery list, come up with weekend activities, or figure out how you're going to get your kids to three different sporting events starting at the same time – yup, currently on my to-do list!
4. Run errands. If you're comfortable leaving your athlete, of course. You can use this time to make/pick up dinner, swing by the grocery store, meet a friend for coffee, get a pedicure. Basically, whatever errand(s) you can fit into the hour to two hours that they're practicing.
5. RELAX. Drink some tea. Put your headphones in. Kick your feet up. Do nothing. It’s perfectly okay to not be busy every waking moment of your life. After all, what better time to relax than when you have kid-free hours to yourself?

I hope you find these tips helpful and that you use some of them next time your athlete has practice!