Our two oldest girls swim 3-4 times per week.

 
This is the sport they have chosen after essentially not choosing a sport for themselves and my husband and me “encouraging” them through a combined approach of bribery, hypnosis and arriving at the pool parking lot 3-4/week as though we had no idea how we had landed there.

 
Sports were important to us growing up and we wanted our kids to be active. Swimming offered both physical activity, a social aspect with an added life saving component and they seemed to like it just as much as karate, gymnastics and smearing toothpaste around the sink.

 
I notice in conversations I have with parents I’m just getting to know, sports and other activities almost always come up.

 
We want to know what everyone else’s kids are doing. Does it cost more to have them enrolled in dance? How many diving practices do they have each week? What’s the waiting room like over at the cheer-leading gym? Do they sell steeped tea at the concession stand at the mall hockey rink?

 
I asked a Mom the other day what her kids were involved in and she said, “Nothing yet. We’re busy with our jobs.”

 
Huh. Stranger words have never been spoken.

 
At first my heart ached for those kids. It seemed like a slam-dunk case of neglect not to have them enrolled in something that would ultimately promise to chew up every weeknight, most weekends and just about every family dinner you could try to plan.

Was this normal? Were we?

 
She said, “My husband throws the ball around in the yard with them.”

 
What is this 1982? We are into serious training these days. Robot kids aren’t going to break any records by tossing the ball around the yard with Dad.

 
The sad part was how surprised I was to hear someone was completely okay with the idea that her children didn’t have to be involved in anything specific and yet they could still function as normal human beings.

 
Are we taking this too far?