Over at the New York Times' Well blog, Tara Parker-Pope talks about going to all your child's games. Should you or shouldn't you?
For many parents, having a child involved in sports is both a blessing and a curse. Sports are great for a child’s health and physical and emotional development, but attending every game can be a challenge for busy working parents.
That's an understatement. Try having two kids involved in soccer (one at a competitive level), and one in gymnastics (also competitive) and the other on his school's cross-country team. Add a couple of jobs and a raft of other commitments, and you're looking at a situation that could be seriously crazy-making. Parker-Pope likes going to her daughter's every game, but got many passionate responses from parents who resent the fact that sports involvement is now considered a whole-family pursuit.
What do you think? Do you go to all your child's games, or do skip out sometimes in order to do something else? (And do you feel like a bad, bad slackermommy - or daddy -- if you do? Or are you mad as hell that parenting is now the type of total-involvement activity that our parents would have found unthinkable?)
