We are not raising athletes here....

I was walking in the neighborhood the other day and stopped briefly to chat with a group of mom's who had just put their kids on the bus.  One of them was asking us "sports" moms what season it was now because she was thinking of getting her son signed up for something.  Another mom gasped and said it was Basketball season but most teams had already started practice.
"If you are not a team by now you may have trouble finding one." She stated as nicely as suburbianly possible.

The woman's response has been swirling in my head for days, she just laughed and said,
"Oh that's not a problem we are not raising athletes over here."
So what are you raising?

Seriously? Are you raising Desk Jockey's? Scholars? Hermits? I didn't think I was raising athletes either necessarily. There's no Pele or Jordan in this house. I'm raising my children - more specifically boys. Most boys I've met, especially mine, need exercise and lots of it. Sitting around for too long starts World War IV in our house everyone gets so crabby.  Locking kids up for 8 hours a day is the governments job, it's called the public school system.

I'm not just saying this because my husband is a Personal Trainer Extradinaire who eats, breathes, and sleeps exercise.  I know it personally-my anxiety, depression, IBS can get out of control when I get too stagnant.  We all know that your body needs exercise but now there is powerful research that proves your brain needs it! So especially if you are raising scholars they need exercise to grow that big brain.

The last four or five days when I take off for my morning workout which starts with a two mile walk/jog her statement just keeps popping back into my head-.
I have decided that I am raising athletes, and proud of it.  Because life is a full contact sport.  I want them to be ready for everything, able to handle anything, and not afraid of sweat or hard work.  If they learn some of that through Basketball or Soccer - fantastic! (Because I've spent a awful lot of time hanging out with them there.)

But if they also learn that from cleaning out the garage or basement, mowing the lawn, raking the leaves, shoveling our driveway as well as all the neighbors over 65 - fantastic!  Good thing we got a workout in, I'm tired just writing about it.