# Starting child workflows in parallel **URL:** \ **Category:** Community Support\ **Created:** [September 28, 2023, 9:02pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/starting-child-workflows-in-parallel/9653 "2023-09-28T21:02:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alan\_Ngai](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/alan_ngai/32/4366_2.png) [@Alan\_Ngai](https://community.temporal.io/u/Alan_Ngai)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 9:02pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/starting-child-workflows-in-parallel/9653/1 "2023-09-28T21:02:57Z")
I’m having trouble starting child workflows in parallel. I’m running temporal in GCR and my temporal dashboard shows that I have 8 workers. I then start a parent workflow that should create 2 child workflows in parallel (using workflow.start\_child\_workflow()). However, only one child workflow gets started at a time. The second one doesn’t start until after the first one completes. I suspected that the child workflow only gets started on the same node as the parent, so I did a google search which suggested I set the parent\_close\_policy to ABANDON, but that didn’t work. Any ideas on what’s going on? ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Ngai](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.temporal.io/alan_ngai/32/4366_2.png) [@Alan\_Ngai](https://community.temporal.io/u/Alan_Ngai)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2023, 9:17pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/starting-child-workflows-in-parallel/9653/2 "2023-09-28T21:17:12Z")
figured it out right after I posted this (as usual). The problem was that I calling start\_child\_workflow() doesn’t actually schedule the workflow. You have to await the handle that’s returned for it to be scheduled. I did do this, but then I also awaited the result from the handle in sequence, which prevented the scheduling of the second child workflow until the first was completed. TLDR: user error 😛