Parenthood can be stressful, but some stress is (unnecessarily) chosen. That’s the message of today’s Best of Both Worlds podcast guest, Gabrielle Blair.
The longtime blogger behind Design Mom, Blair is also a mother of 6. In this episode, she shares with Sarah her perspective on worrying less, especially as kids grow up and make their own choices.
Then in the Q&A, we tackle a question from a listener who wonders if it’s true that you need to develop a child’s soccer talents as a toddler in order for the kid to play in high school. Do we wish we’d pushed kids more in activities?
Please give the episode a listen! As always, we welcome ratings and reviews. We also welcome folks to our Patreon community, where we discuss these topics in our very fun forum. Our next Zoom meet-up will be 11/26, when we’ll discuss all things holidays, and then we’ll have our annual goal-setting workshop in December. Membership is $9/month.
I have actually never heard of Ms. Gabrielle Blair either. Now I know.
@Yukun – she’s an interesting person – and a very early blogger. 18 years!
For the listener asking about the soccer playing kid, my now junior in high school played soccer in kindergarten, and it was obvious that he didn’t have the natural talent some other kids did. He didn’t have much interest in continuing, so he stopped after that one year. Then in 8th grade he asked to join a rec team, and he’s played rec since then, continuing on an awesome high school rec team in our county. In hindsight, he would have developed into a better player had he stuck with it, but it’s never too late to start and still have fun. Now he runs on the high school track team where there are no cuts, so I echo Laura’s comments about the running sports being for everyone.
@Meghan – yep, some sports are more open for people later. My son definitely enjoyed the cross country season this fall and he improved really quickly with daily practice.
I guess my thinking on this is that I want to make sure my kid has the strength and stamina to move his body in positive ways, both as a kid and as an adult. I was not a ball sports person as a kid and it seemed like there wasn’t another way to be active? Particularly in suburbia. As an adult, I walk and cycle loads, go to hot yoga, etc, but nothing traditionally sporty, and I feel like I really had to work up to it (by moving abroad and walking everywhere). My husband was similar (although his family hiked more), but at 44, he just started tennis lessons and LOVES it.
So we focus on everyday active – we cycle or walk to school , we go for hikes or rides at the weekend, he climbs trees, etc. We’ve not got a giant yard, but we’ve got a basketball hoop, mini soccer goal, tetherball, lots of frisbees, etc. and the skatepark is nearby.
@Cb – I think everyday movement is good – a lot of adults do very little, and I assume many of those folks did sports earlier in life, but viewed it as a team/competitive thing…not something you do on your own.