<p>My older son exchanged his two varsity sport habit for fraternity IM’s in college - he is also an officer and very active in several of his major’s clubs. He is also involved in several large campus philanthropies. He works a few hours a week as a lifeguard too. </p>
<p>Younger son will continue his sport in college - we will see how long that lasts - he is pretty focused. I would like to see him branch out into some other organizations too.</p>
<p>Harriet, I’ll take you up on that drink - please pour me Seabreeze. It doesn’t have to be virtual, since I don’t have to drive anywhere this afternoon. </p>
<p>That’s a bad injury your D had, Harriet. Has she recovered? I can just imagine how cranky she was if she was out of commission that long. D only hurt herself 2 1/2 weeks ago, and it feels like forever. Funny, but I never think of my D as being a jock (although I guess she is one…lol). My S says he wants to play football, basketball, and lacrosse - but in the past when I’ve signed him up, he has always resisted going when the time came. I told him he could wait until 7th grade when he could play for the school teams (football and lacrosse are walk-on teams, basketball is not - but he’s pretty good at shooting baskets, so he has a chance). I really don’t think he’ll stick with the sports as he is not quite that dedicated, and even middle school sports require two hours of practice after school everyday. </p>
<p>Mythmom, I think dancing can almost be considered a sport these days - I know our hs has a competitive dance team. Those girls work hard - but they practice only every other day compared to the every day that the other sports teams practice. Your S is just lucky to be thin, I guess. </p>
<p>mountains - I think a lot of kids give sports up in high school - they just take up so much time, and it’s very hard to do other things if you participate in sports. I noticed that quite a few girls who played softball and basketball in middle school did not join the teams in high school, and that even less of them are playing as sophs and juniors. It just gets to be too much, especially if they want to participate in other ECs.</p>
<p>D went every day to dance, but not to compete. She went to a dance studio and had an entire life there. Because our town is so tiny and the studio was right in town she could walk from HS to studio to restaurants to Starbucks to library. She had a completely independent life but no boys! at dance.</p>
<p>Maybe that’s why the women’s colleges attract so many dancers – they’re used to it.</p>
<p>D’s sport was jockeying for parts in the Nutcracker. She had many, including once of the mice.</p>
<p>Seabreezes all around, then! </p>
<p>mythmom, I’ve always figured dancers were fitter and more dedicated than most athletes. And I’m in awe of your basket-shooting abilities (among others). Unless S2 turns out to have the touch, we will continue on as an entire family of Utterly Incapable Basketball Players. It’s the one sport not a single one of us can even play playground (and I mean children’s playground) pickup.</p>
<p>LIMOM, yeah, it was an awful injury (she ripped up most of the meniscus, along with totally severing the ligament), and a painful surgery/recovery, and brutal rehab, but YES, she put every ounce of stubborn - oops! I mean spririted! - first-child determination into the process, and was wholly recovered in time for her spring season. And I thought I was too until the first hit she took, post-recovery. My friends tell me I didn’t make <em>much</em> noise as I passed out. :eek: Anyway she jokes that three + years later, her bionic knee is stronger than the rest of her, and I expect she’s right.</p>
<p>kitkat, I think that switch to general IMs and/or Greek IMs happens a lot. It absolutely gratifies the team loyalty/team spirit aspect of sports, without compromising kids’ time so much. </p>
<p>mountains, I couldn’t agree more with “one never knows” and I think it is the single most apt comment about most of the hs/college athlete population. And the next-most apt is “things do change.” 
Maybe you can have a second career in sports psychology.</p>
<p>mythmom - My friend’s D is like yours - at dance classes everyday, sometimes twice a day. The only problem is, her dance school is several towns away, so my friend is constantly driving back and forth. I think that would make me crazy! She also dances competitively, so they spend many weekends at those dance competitions. I have been mostly grateful that my D chose regular sports over dance for just that reason - those dance competitions are real money pits, between fees, costumes and travel. She was, and is still, very girly, so people are often surprised when they find out she is into sports (especially softball).</p>
<p>Harriet, my friend’s son had a similar injury earlier this year, and I know he’s been out of commission the whole year - your D really must have been determined to recover. Normally, my D would have started playing again by now - I wouldn’t let her because she has an audition next week, and she needs her hands to work well. In this case, the audition is much more important to her future than missing a few games.</p>
<p>Harriet, nah - I’d rather not have any second career; I so prefer to just eat gelato, watch gorgeous Italian men walk by in Venice and be young but have wisdom. </p>
<p>::Smell of burning dinner brings mountains back to reality::…which is, eating unsalted peanuts, watching dinner burn and old but have wisdom. One out of four ain’t bad.:)</p>
<p>mountains: Hm. Gorgeous Italian men? I am getting old. Too many guys look like babies. I could be their mom and grandmom. I’ve always had a “what’s the point of looking if we can’t touch?” policy. Girl, virtual gelato with unsalted eggs? Too much virtual gratification for me. I can’t find a way to say what I want to without sounding naughty, which I don’t want to, so I’ll just quietly say you have a lovely H so not everything is virtual! And you’re so funny. I love it.</p>
<p>Oh dear, Harriet, that sounds awful. Does your D still do sports?</p>
<p>My D has walked so much all over London that she has had fried chicken, chips and a pint or two every day and is actually thinner than when she left! Since my family is unfortunately very weight conscious and a cousin gained a lot of weight drinking in London everyone cautioned her about it. D, unlike most dancers, said, “I’d rather gain weight than miss my life.” I arranged for her to pick up a huge box of chocolates at a London candy shop for Valentines Day. And she ate it!! </p>
<p>But she recently went to Dover and climbed the cliffs and complained about shin splints, a common complaint with her. She said she gets them a lot because once you get them they recur. I’ve never had them. Does anyone know anything about them?</p>
<p>NorthMinnesota: I know this is a bit belated, but I find myself thinking about your D. I hope her ailment does not cause her too much distress. I contracted really serious asthma when I was 17 and prednisone was all that kept me breathing for years. I hope your D is more fortunate. So glad the working out helps.</p>
<p>mythmom - H is actually a gorgeous Italian guy but he … talks back and is old. 
I’d rather stare at them and get my way (and no, that’s not what I mean). </p>
<p>I’ve never been to the Cliffs of Dover and will probably visit when I’m old, retired and S out of college. Sorry, I can’t help with shin splints. Are you sure your D will want to come home?</p>
<p>Yes, she will, but only because she misses NYC. It’s her boyfriend, as Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City, said. (She does have a real one too, but I think NYC would trump him.) And she will turn 21 within the month so she can have all her fun there! She is spending the summer in NYC working a gazillion jobs and internships. She has free housing on Barnard’s campus because two of those gigs are actually for the school. She’s hoping they’ll move her into her room for Sept. so she won’t have to move twice.</p>
<p>She is not looking forward to LSAT study, though, but she would have to do that in London, too.</p>
<p>I like old guys. Did I ever mention that an 80 year old takes me to lunch once a month? He is more fit than H, but I draw the line at 70 for romance. Just friends.</p>
<p>mountains - I’ll join you in Venice - sounds great. I wouldn’t mind eating gelato and watching gorgeous Italian men…lol.</p>
<p>mythmom - your daughter sounds like she is having an amazing time in London! Good for her. BTW, I do know a little about shin splints as D suffers from them during cross country season every year. When she gets them, the treatment is icing the shins. I think she’s gotten her legs massaged by the physical therapist as well - but not often. Really, nothing seems to help her, and now she just runs with the shin splints and doesn’t complain.</p>
<p>LIMOMOF2: That’s why your D is an athlete and my D is a pub crawling, cafe going, movie watching sybarite. (I adore her.)</p>
<p>I was definitely more the pub-crawling, cafe-going type myself…lol. I can actually see my D becoming more like that - once she’s away at college. Thankfully, she seems a little more relaxed now - it seems once I took the decision about whether she should go to the game out of her hands, she calmed down.</p>
<p>Soooo glad to hear she’s more relaxed. Which AP does she have tomorrow?</p>
<p>jnsq-I’ll share that video with her. She’s a bit more into some kind of new style of playing…folktronika, I think. Her friend accompanies her on an electric piano and they sing oddly intellectual songs.</p>
<p>LIMOM, she has no time either for her hobbies, but chooses them over sleep or fits them into her other activities. I think since she’s been feeling better, she just wants to experience everything she can…who needs sleep?</p>
<p>mythmom - You absolutely made my day! I shant think of farts without remembering your joke!</p>
<p>My heart goes out to all those sporty girls with the injuries. My younger D was a gymnast before her illness and we were regulars at the ER. It’s amazing how they just bounce back and keep going. I could never get my older D to do much besides basketball, but now in college she has become obsessed with dance. You never know!</p>
<p>Last AP of HS tomorrow for my D, too! AP Euro. She loves this class and wants to do well for the sake of her teacher.</p>
<p>Thanks for the Seabreeze! Yummy!</p>
<p>I’m breezing by for a Seabreeze, too, thank you-- hope you don’t mind. Just the thing for a humid evening!</p>
<p>2forcollege: So glad you enjoyed. Chaucer is a rascal.</p>
<p>Thanks, Harriet - she’s taking AP Euro tomorrow - it’s her first AP, and she is nervous - though much more relaxed than she was when I dropped her off at school this morning.</p>
<p>2forcollege - interesting how your D’s last AP is my D’s first. Good luck to your D - I’m sure she’ll do well since she loved the class. My D loved it too - she just stressed herself out because she’s afraid she won’t be able to write the essays quickly enough because of her sprained hand. </p>
<p>You say who needs sleep? D apparently does, as she’s been falling asleep on top of her AP Euro review book the past three nights…lol. I give your D a lot of credit for pursuing her interests.</p>
<p>Harriet, did you say you passed out the first time you watched your D compete after she recovered? I’m sorry - I think that part of your post just got through the fuzz in my brain. I hope you were ok? I can imagine how you felt though. It’s hard watching our kids get hurt.</p>
<p>Mythmom, when my son had shin splints, the orthopedic doctor recommended freezing water in a paper cup (Dixie cup) and using it to roll up and down the shin to massage it. Easy and it seemed to help him a little bit.</p>