It’s easy to laugh at Modern Family’s gay dads as they panic over getting their precious Lily into the right preschool, but how far is this sitcom scenario from reality? I enrolled my boys almost a year in advance at my preschool of choice and was still on the wait list in August (luckily they both made it in).

Our fear of having our offspring “fall behind” extends beyond ABCs and 123s. The latest drive to junior perfection is to turn our two-year-olds into mini sports protégées.

Increasing numbers of babies are being groomed as athletes before they can walk. Enrollment is skyrocketing in sport ball, swimming and gymnastics for the sub two-year-old sect. Videos such as gymtrix and Athletic Baby start athletic training and teaching sports fundamentals as early as three months. But is all this time and money worth it?

While I have to admit I’m guilty of enrolling both my boys in sports programs, I do it more for the socialization aspect than any hopes they’ll be the next Sidney Crosby. Having recently had my third, my stamina for attending skating and soccer is diminishing. Maybe it’s time to go back to old school playing. Allowing children to explore their environment and let them master walking before we start Olympic training.

Tags: athletes, athletic baby, gymnastics, gymtrix, infant, modern family, preschool, sidney crosby, skating, soccer, sport ball, sports, swimming

This entry was posted on Friday, December 17th, 2010 at 10:21 am and is filed under Nancy's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.