Strollerderby : competition

Babble Talk: When Your Kid is Always the Loser

Jen Chaney — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:02:00 GMT

Alyssa Giacobbe doesn't want her boyfriend's four-year-old son to be a winner. Well, at least not all of the time. And definitely if he hasn't earned it.

That's the subject of her Bad Parent essay, entitled "Tough Luck, Kid," in which she confesses that she never lets young Noah win at Candyland, Mario Kart, Memory or any other competitive diversion in which she and the boy may engage. What Giacobbe describes as her "firm stance on winning and losing" has ignited some heated comments on the Babble Web site, many from people who are fired up for reasons that have nothing to do with board games.

"The 'bad parent' isn't a parent at all but a live-in girlfriend who dislikes her boyfriend's child and sees their relationship as a competition," writes one commenter. "Yes, she's in a competition with a FOUR YEAR OLD, and she's going to show that kid who's the bigger, smarter, more awesome person. How impressive."

Another blames Babble for publishing the piece in the first place: "I also agree with the assessment that this woman is NOT a parent. In fact, I am deeply offended as an ACTUAL MOTHER that Babble would publish this. This woman has no idea how actual mothers feel (and hopefully never will because she is clearly too immature and cold to be a mother) and to publish this is just reckless."

Okay, all due respect: reckless is pushing it. Driving drunk is reckless. Playing Keep Away with a loaded gun is reckless. Posting an essay by a woman who frequently acts as a caregiver to a child even though she is technically not the child's mother may be questionable to some, but no one is going to die or have his or her life ruined as a result. (For the record, I think the issues Giacobbe describes relate directly to parenting, so I think it's totally valid to run this. But that's me.)

All that said, the fact that Giacobbe is not Noah's mother does raise some valid questions, namely whether she should be enforcing this "the kid stays on the losing side" policy when even she notes that his father doesn't necessarily agree with it. "Bob hasn't yet bought in, skeptical of what he calls my shameless competitive nature and minimal innate parental wisdom," she writes.

Obviously moms and dads -- or dads and live-in-girlfriend-caregivers, since everyone wants to get technical about this -- don't always agree about how best to teach their children a lesson. But the most important thing, in my mind, is to show a united front. If Dad (and perhaps his mom) often let little Noah win under false pretenses but Giacobbe doesn't, Giacobbe's effort to teach him about the importance of losing gracefully may be, well, lost. Consistency is important. Without it, she just seems like the bad guy. Or, possibly from Noah's perspective, the best Mario Kart player in the history of Wii.

Now, back to the larger point, which is really what this essay is about in the first place: Is the author right or wrong? I say yes, and no. Actually, I think I'm on Bob's side on this one. According to Giacobbe, her partner "practices a moderate halfsies approach to game-playing: Noah is guaranteed a win at least half the time." I think that at least while the child is only four, that's the right way to go.

I completely agree with Giacobbe that it's wrong to always let our kids win, or to lie to them about their failures just so they won't feel bad. It's one of the hazards of something Amy Kuras wrote about here in Strollerderby just last week: self-esteem focused parentings. Many moms and dads focus so intensely on convincing their kids that they can achieve great things that they never bother to teach them the importance of accepting disappointment with dignity. And that's just as crucial to being a success as actual success itself.

The truth is that over the course of a life, most of us win sometimes and lose sometimes. We get a sprinkling of both. And that's why I agree with Noah's dad in this case. At the age of 4, Noah deserves to know the truth: that sometimes luck isn't on your side. So you lay your head on your Thomas the Tank Engine pillowcase at the end of the day with the sobering knowledge that, yes, your father is better at Connect Four than you are. But then there are other, magical days when you reach your maximum potential, the world smiles and all those red, circular chips line up exactly right.

Nursery University: An Exclusive Clip from the Preschool Film!

editors — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:25:00 GMT

Marc Simon’s

How far would you go to get your child into a good school? Nursery University, Marc Simon and Matthew Makar's documentary about the hyper-competitive admissions process in New York City, follows five families as they go through the cut-throat process of — wait for it — preschool admissions. Watch the drama unfold in this exclusive teaser from the film. And lest you think this only happens in NYC, check out Babble's essay about preschool hysteria in the 'burbs.

Report Finds Individualistic Culture Harms Kids—Because It Leads to Working Moms

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:00:00 GMT

A three-year study by a British charity called the Children’s Group has uncovered some unsurprising problems with individualistic culture. The report, called A Good Childhood, found that children are suffering from “a belief among adults that the prime duty of the individual is to make the most of their [sic] own life, rather than contribute to the good of others."

Thanks to a me-first culture, the study contends, people are more accepting of excessive materialism and widespread economic inequality that leaves millions of children in poverty; are unfazed by harmful advertising aimed at children; and see school as a place to compete rather than make friends and have fun.

This all makes sense to me. What boggles my mind is the solution proposed by the study’s authors: keep women in the home. According to the report, “excessive individualism” has lead women to get all uppity, believing they should take on paid jobs other than child-rearing and housecleaning. This is bad for children because clearly all working moms neglect their kids. Plus, women now have the freedom to break up families with their selfish desire to end unhappy marriages.

The study’s authors write: “Women's new economic independence…has made women much less dependent on their male partners, as has the advent of the welfare state.” Hold on a second here. I thought this report signaled the need to have compassion for others, which would mean supporting welfare for needy families and other government programs that help the less fortunate succeed.

Then, of course, there’s the little problem with the assumption (which I thought died circa 1950) that women should be dependent on men for all their basic needs. This way, even if men are physically abusive or alcoholic or can’t hold down a job, women would not be able to divorce them since they would have no means of caring for themselves. This would be good for kids, because divorce is an evil that must be smote out.

Oh, did I mention that the study’s authors have ties to the Church of England?

Image: phawker.com

Study Finds Girls "Prefer Chatting" to Being Physically Active

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:00:00 GMT

New research has found that women of all ages are less active than men. Observing schoolchildren at play, researchers have concluded that girls would rather socialize than play sports.

While I don't doubt the study’s findings that men are more physically active than women, I have some reservations about the explanation that girls simply like to sit around chatting, while boys like to run around and get dirty.

Until I graduated high school, I considered myself the least athletic person I knew. It was a big joke among my friends that any activity requiring physical exertion was off bounds for me. But once I realized that being active did not have to mean doing Indian sprints at Varsity field hockey practice, I became very athletic. I now bike everywhere, do yoga, dance, hike, surf, and run.

I certainly didn’t shun sports because I “prefer to chat.” But a casual observer could easily have drawn this conclusion from watching me on the sidelines during gym class, laughing with a girlfriend instead of trying to get in on the athletic action. The truth is, I was too intimidated to participate in traditional team sports, since I seem to have inherited a gene which makes me physically incapable of throwing and catching a ball. Even the sports that I did enjoy—gymnastics and track—were unappealing to me because I had no interest in competing. I just wanted to move around and have fun.

Perhaps it’s not girls’ natural inclinations that make them less active than their male counterparts, but rather the way sports are taught in school.

Photo: The Telegraph

Pregnant Women Compete in Marathon

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:50:00 GMT

Meet the Speed Bumps: a relay team of five women who are planning to beat the pants of off their competition in Ohio’s Road Runner Akron Marathon.

The only difference between this team and their 10,000 or so competitors is that the Speed Bumps will all be running for two. All five women are in or nearing their third trimester, with Kimberly Bucey (pictured) the farthest along at eight months.

All of the women got the OK from their doctors before agreeing to compete, but some of their husbands are nervous nonetheless. Naturally, the key to healthy exercise during pregnancy is to listen to your body’s cues (for instance, if you can’t catch your breath, your baby may not be getting enough oxygen), and this may be harder to do when you’re competing.

But the Speed Bumps are marathon buffs who are thrilled to be able to keep running during their pregnancies, and are confident they can do so in a healthy manner. “It’s great to keep running because it’s great to stay in shape,” said Monica Nowac, one of the Speed Bumps. “And it’s great to spread the word about staying in shape while you’re pregnant. To think anything else is simply archaic at this point.”

What do you think? Is "spreading the word" about exercise during pregnancy a laudable goal, or are those nine months when staying in shape should be the last thing you're worried about?

Photo: Ohio.com

Why the puppy games are better than the Olympics

Brett Singer — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 19:00:00 GMT

OK, that's not true. But if you haven't seen this dopey show on Animal Planet, you're missing out on something very cute.

Here are a few highlights:

1. Commentary: "It's going to be tough to impress the judges." True – because they're goldfish. "This is like a chess match." Indeed – if chess opponents gnawed on the pieces and sniffed each others' butts. Bob Costas doesn't get lines like these.

2. No controversy: As far as we know, the opening ceremonies were real, no protesters, journalists or grandmothers were arrested, and no one is complaining about the puppy's potentially sexist costumes.

3. Who won? Who cares?: They're, you know, dogs. They have no idea where they are or what they're doing. You can still cheer for your favorite breed (the Cocker Spaniel is really cute) but at the end of the day, it's all up to the judges… who are goldfish.

4. Two words: Waterbowl Cam.

Not sure if they're going to air this again or not, if so, I highly recommend watching it. There are a bunch of video clips on Discovery.com; here's one of the Gymnastics event.

source/image: Animal Planet

Other Old Olympians

Olympics Opening Uses One Girl's Voice, Another Girl's Face

Bela Karolyi likes to kill things

Did Michael Phelps actually win 8 medals?

Michael Phelps to endorse Frosted Flakes

Olympic Athletes To Be Tested . . . For Gender

Jon Stewart Tackles Olympic Controversies

Michael Phelps father in Baltimore, not Beijing

33 year old mom wins silver medal, saves son from leukemia

Dara Torres inspired two current Olympians

Aussie Rower keeps his kids close

Protesters and journalists arrested in China (video)

Whole lotta fakin' goin' on at the opening ceremony

Shawn Johnson more mature than her coach

Volleyball hasn’t come a long way, baby

Nastia Liukin's mom watches from the stands (video)

Brett Singer — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Apparently Nastia Liukin's mother, Anna Kotchneva Liukin, has a hard time watching her gold-medal winning daughter compete. According to the NBC commentators, she spent some of the recent Beijing events shopping. This time, though, she stuck it out, but not without some difficulty. They didn't mention it, but I don't think she knows the guy she's sitting next to, despite the fact that she almost ends up in his lap.

My kids aren't terribly athletic (at least not yet) so I don't know what it's like to see your offspring in an intense competition, and the Olympics are as big as it gets for gymnasts. Anna knows from being on that big stage: she was a champion gymnast herself. Not sure if that makes it harder or easier to see your kid out there; judging from this video, I'd say it must be pretty tough.

Read more:

IOC orders investigation of Chinese Gymnast's age

Other Old Olympians

Shawn Johnson more mature than her coach

Did Michael Phelps actually win 8 medals?

Michael Phelps to endorse Frosted Flakes

Misty May-Treanor & Kerri Walsh Get The Gold, Now They Want to Get Pregnant

Bela Karolyi likes to kill things

They Say: no junk food ads at the Olympics

Misty May-Treanor Scatters Mom's Ashes at Olympics

Twenty Olympic Moms - Now What's My Excuse?

Michael Phelps father in Baltimore, not Beijing

Dara Torres inspired two current Olympians

Whole lotta fakin' goin' on at the opening ceremony

Table Tennis Women, Flaunt Your Stuff!

Volleyball hasn’t come a long way, baby

Jon Stewart Tackles Olympic Controversies

Olympics Opening Uses One Girl's Voice, Another Girl's Face

Do All These Chinese Gymnasts Look 16 to You?

Aussie Rower keeps his kids close

Protesters and journalists arrested in China (video)

IOC orders investigation of Chinese Gymnast's age

Brett Singer — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:54:00 GMT

He Kexin won a gold medal in the uneven bars and also contributed to the Chinese beating out the U.S. in the team gymnastics event. She looks really really young, and there have been questions about her age for awhile now. The IOC has begun to formally investigate whether or not, "Chinese authorities covered up the true age of their gold-medal winning gymnastics star because she was too young to compete," because of, "'discrepancies' that have come to light about the age of He Kexin." You kind of have to wonder what took them so long, but apparently someone, described as an "American hacker" by the U.K.-based Times Online, has uncovered documents that offer proof that Kexin is too young.

Watching the games, the judging also seemed biased, although that's more subjective. Still, I'm pretty sure I saw a member of the Chinese team fall in one event and not get any deduction, whereas an American who had a similar fall lost points. Béla Károlyi told Bob Costas that, "The lack of competence of certain judges is obvious," and it was tough to disagree.

Károlyi's wife Marta has attacked the age issue the way her gymnasts attacked their events, and while I think she went a little overboard, I agree that the whole thing is very suspicious.

Would the Chinese government lie about an athlete's age in order to gain a competitive advantage? And if so, what happens? The medals get stripped, but should they be banned from the Olympics for a time after that?

So – how old do you think she looks? 14? 16? Do I hear 12?

Source/image: TimesOnline

They Say: no junk food ads at the Olympics

Michael Phelps father in Baltimore, not Beijing

Dara Torres inspired two current Olympians

Whole lotta fakin' goin' on at the opening ceremony

Some Parenting Lessons From Michael Phelps's Mom

Gold (OK, Silver) Medal Girlcrush: Dana Torres

Volleyball hasn’t come a long way, baby

Jon Stewart Tackles Olympic Controversies

Olympics Opening Uses One Girl's Voice, Another Girl's Face

Do All These Chinese Gymnasts Look 16 to You?

Aussie Rower keeps his kids close

Protesters and journalists arrested in China (video)

Team more mature than coach

They Say: no junk food ads at the Olympics

Brett Singer — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Like 30 million plus people, I've been watching a lot of Olympics the past few days. Which means I've seen a lot of commercials from the sponsors of the Games; I think I've seen that McDonald's ad touting chicken sandwiches for breakfast (ew) at least 50 times.

Two watchdog groups, Commercial Alert and Multinational Monitor, have released a study titled, "The Commercial Games." According to AdWeek, "The study is highly critical of the sponsorship and advertising policies of the International Olympic Committee and the various sports federations and national committees under its auspices…The groups argue that the marketing of junk foods, sodas, fast-food chains and alcoholic beverages should be eliminated from the Games. Their reasoning: such products conflict with the stated purpose of the Olympics, which they say is to 'celebrate healthful living.'…Promoting such products in the widely watched Olympics…is 'unhealthful,' and particularly inappropriate 'for an event with enormous appeal to children.'" The groups slam McDonald's and Coca-Cola the hardest, saying that both companies, "run businesses centered around unhealthy food," and suggest that, "The Olympics should not lend its name and aura to help promote more consumption of these unhealthy products."

In what could be the funniest bit of corporate protestation ever, McDonald's "objected to the study's labeling of its product as 'unhealthy,'" presumably because they now offer apple slices and stuff like that. (Don't worry; you can get "low-fat caramel dipping sauce" with them.) The International Olympic Committee (IOC) does not accept ads from liquor companies, although beer and wine are OK. Not surprisingly, Commercial Alert and Multinational Monitor think the IOC should ban beer and wine ads as well.

The reason for all of these ads is, of course, money. According to Ad Week, there are 63 sponsors at this years' Games, which sounds like a lot, although it doesn’t say how that compares to previous years. The article quotes "brand consultant" Robert Passikoff as saying that 63 might be too many sponsors, but he defends the IOC's right to sell as many ads as they can: "The question is why should they cut back? They're making an awful lot of money on it. Why should anyone other than the consumers and the marketing folks be the arbiter of what's right and wrong? No research group should have the right to tell them who to do business with; who put them in charge?"

Is Passikoff right? Or should the IOC be more selective about whom they allow to sponsor the Olympics?

Source: AdWeek, Image: MSNBC

Protesters and journalists arrested in China (video)

Whole lotta fakin' goin' on at the opening ceremony

Team more mature than coach

Other Old Olympians

Michael Phelps father in Baltimore, not Beijing

Like father like son

Aussie Rower keeps his kids close

Dara Torres inspired two current Olympians

Some Parenting Lessons From Michael Phelps's Mom

Gold (OK, Silver) Medal Girlcrush: Dana Torres

Volleyball hasn’t come a long way, baby

Baby survives tornado

Egyptian woman gives birth to septuplets because she wanted a boy

Jon Stewart Tackles Olympic Controversies

Olympics Opening Uses One Girl's Voice, Another Girl's Face

Do All These Chinese Gymnasts Look 16 to You?

Bela Karolyi likes to kill things

Brett Singer — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:00:00 GMT

When Béla Károlyi isn't training world-class gymnasts or telling Bob Costas that, "The lack of competence of certain judges [in this year's Olympic Games] is obvious," he likes to go…hunting.

When I googled Károlyi in an attempt to get the spelling of his name correct, this page was the fourth result. After seeing him comment, often mercilessly, on the various Olympic gymnastic events, I'm going to say that I'm not exactly shocked that one of his leisure activities is hunting big game.

I'm not going to say anything else about this, since, you know, I don't want to get shot.

Images/Source: bigbexotics.com

Michael Phelps father in Baltimore, not Beijing

Dara Torres inspired two current Olympians

Some Parenting Lessons From Michael Phelps's Mom

Gold (OK, Silver) Medal Girlcrush: Dana Torres

Volleyball hasn’t come a long way, baby

Baby survives tornado

Aussie Rower keeps his kids close

Protesters and journalists arrested in China (video)

Team more mature than coach

Teen Drops Out of School to Play Guitar Hero

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:15:00 GMT

Many parents of gifted children allow their kids to take time off of school to pursue their artistic or athletic vocation. But what if that vocation is playing video games?

Meet Blake Peebles, a 16-year-old from Raleigh, North Carolina who is one of the best Guitar Hero players in the country—meaning, he has a rare talent for pressing buttons on a toy guitar hooked up to a TV screen. Last September, Blake’s parents finally gave in to his repeated requests to drop out of high school and focus on what he loves. Now, instead of attending high school, Blake studies with a private tutor—and puts in long hours with his Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox.

But this is not all fun and games. Blakes hopes to turn his gaming abilities into a lucrative career. Players signed by Major League Gaming (no, I'm not making this up) earn as much as $80,000 a year competing in tournaments.

So far, Blake has won around $1,000—but that money came in the form of gift certificates, gaming equipment, and Chick Fil-A combo meals. He hopes to start bringing in some actual cash after his father takes him to the U.S. regionals of the World Cyber Games.

Concerned family and friends have been quick to condemn the Peebles' decision. But Blake's parents have watched his work ethic and grades improve under a private tutor, and most importantly, they say that Blake is now happy. “I wasn’t really good at anything else that I liked,” he says. Still, the fact remains that being good at Guitar Hero means staying up till 4 a.m. staring at a TV screen.

Do you think the Peebles should have forced Blake to remain in school? Or were they right to trust their son to know what was best for him?

Photo: The News and Observer/Corey Lowenstein

Did Michael Phelps actually win 8 medals?

Brett Singer — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Usually when an athlete is accused of cheating, it's a doping issue: this year alone, at least four athletes have been caught using banned substances. But in Michael Phelps' case, there may be something else going on.

Here's the deal, as reported in the New York Times:

The race in which Phelps won his seventh medal, tying Mark Spitz and setting him up to break the record for most gold at one Olympic Games, was decided by 1/100th of a second. Despite some "controversy" (that's what the article says; I don't recall hearing anything about this when it happened) over the results of the 100-meter butterfly, the authority that oversees swimming (FINA) decided not to release video images to help "prove" that Phelps was the winner.

What does this have to do with Michael Phelps? Well, Omega is the official timekeeper of the Olympics. They are also one of Phelps' sponsors. As the New York Times puts it, "The most visible athlete at these Games is getting a paycheck from the same company whose equipment decides the outcome of Phelps’s events."

To me, this is much ado about nothing, and an attempt to create a problem where there isn't one.

In the first place, FINA doesn’t typically release images of the races, which the Times article mentions but not until the middle of the article. Second, Omega didn't make the decision, FINA did. And third… I don't know, is anyone all that upset about this? Is that because we desperately wanted Phelps to break Spitz's record? Maybe. Personally, I didn't care that much; although some of the races were a lot of fun to watch (like when we beat the French in the relay after they had said they would "crush" the U.S. team – put that in your beret, Frenchie!), by the time Phelps won his eighth gold medal I found I had a certain amount of Phelps Phatigue. That's not to take anything away from him; I just think the coverage got to be a little bit overblown.

If you want to talk about weird judging issues, what about the gymnastics, where the judges clearly favored the Chinese team? (Béla Károlyi, despite being a little bit scary, was right on with much of his analysis.) And if you want to say that there are potential conflicts of interest between certain parties at the Games, I'm sure there is plenty to talk about. I'm not sure, however, that this is an actual controversy.

On the other hand – isn't it fun to have two opinions on the same topic? – why not just release the images? The photo shown here certainly doesn't do much to dispel the notion that perhaps the end result of the race wasn't what we were told it was. Sports ethicists (there's a job I want) interviewed by the Times say that FINA should release whatever information is necessary to keep people from thinking that the results were tainted, especially in this case, since it is so high profile.

Image/source: NYTimes

Other Old Olympians

Michael Phelps father in Baltimore, not Beijing

Whole lotta fakin' goin' on at the opening ceremony

Protesters and journalists arrested in China (video)

Dara Torres inspired two current Olympians

Elderly Chinese Women Sentenced to "Re-Education"

Some Parenting Lessons From Michael Phelps's Mom

Gold (OK, Silver) Medal Girlcrush: Dana Torres

Volleyball hasn’t come a long way, baby

Table Tennis Women, Flaunt Your Stuff!

Baby survives tornado

Aussie Rower keeps his kids close

Team more mature than coach

Michael Phelps to endorse Frosted Flakes

Brett Singer — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:30:00 GMT

Maybe they should call them Phrosted Phlakes?

Once upon a time, Wheaties was the Breakfast of Champions, but now its Frosted Flakes. Michael Phelps will appear on a box of Tony the Tiger's favorite (phavorite? OK, OK, I'll stop) morning meal.

Naturally, some are upset with Phelps for choosing to endorse a sugary breakfast cereal. "In a country where childhood obesity is an alarming issue, Phelps' iconic image sharing space with Tony the Tiger sends the wrong message, experts say."

Personally, I doubt that any kid will buy Frosted Flakes because Phelps' image is on the box, although Kellogg's probably hopes I'm very wrong. And we know he did it because they offered him more money, rather than a more "moral" reason. Since swimming can't touch baseball or football in terms of the money an athlete can earn for competing, I don't think I have a problem with Michael making as much as he can while he can make it, especially since the IOC seems to be raking it in from their 63 sponsors.

source/image: NY Daily News

Protesters and journalists arrested in China (video)

Whole lotta fakin' goin' on at the opening ceremony

Team more mature than coach

Other Old Olympians

Michael Phelps father in Baltimore, not Beijing

Like father like son

Aussie Rower keeps his kids close

Dara Torres inspired two current Olympians

Some Parenting Lessons From Michael Phelps's Mom

Gold (OK, Silver) Medal Girlcrush: Dana Torres

Volleyball hasn’t come a long way, baby

Baby survives tornado

Egyptian woman gives birth to septuplets because she wanted a boy

Jon Stewart Tackles Olympic Controversies

Olympics Opening Uses One Girl's Voice, Another Girl's Face

Do All These Chinese Gymnasts Look 16 to You?

Other Old Olympians

Brett Singer — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Dara Torres is 41, and Oksana Chusovitina is 33 (and saved her son from leukemia), but they aren't even close to the oldest Olympic athletes in history, or even this year. Most aren't in the more physically strenuous events, but competing in anything at their age is pretty impressive.

* Iain Murray is on the Australian Olympic sailing team, and at age 50 is making his Olympic debut. Murray is Australia's oldest Olympian; Andrew Palfrey, a teammate, is 41 and also competing in his first Olympics.

* Luan Jujie was 50 years old in 1984 when she won a Gold medal in fencing for Canada.

* Susan Nattrass is 57 and currently in Beijing on the Canadian shooting team. In 1976, she became the first woman shooter to compete in the Olympics.

* Hiroshi Hoketsu, a Japanese equestrian, made his Olympic debut in 1964 and is now back for a second time – at age 67.

* Oscar Swahn (Shooting) competed in his last Olympics in 1920 at the age of – are you ready for this? – 72. (He was planning to go in 1924 but he got sick. Wimp.) Over his career, Swahn won three gold medals, two bronze, and a silver in 1920, making him the oldest Olympic medallist ever. Fun fact: his son competed with him in 1908, 1912 and 1920.

For more, see NBCOlympics.com

Image/Source: nbcolympics.com

Dara Torres inspired two current Olympians

Some Parenting Lessons From Michael Phelps's Mom

Gold (OK, Silver) Medal Girlcrush: Dana Torres

Volleyball hasn’t come a long way, baby

Baby survives tornado

Aussie Rower keeps his kids close

Egyptian woman gives birth to septuplets because she wanted a boy

Protesters and journalists arrested in China (video)

Whole lotta fakin' goin' on at the opening ceremony

Team more mature than coach

Jon Stewart Tackles Olympic Controversies

Olympics Opening Uses One Girl's Voice, Another Girl's Face

Do All These Chinese Gymnasts Look 16 to You?

Like father like son

Michael Phelps father in Baltimore, not Beijing

Brett Singer — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:00:00 GMT

We've seen quite a bit of Michael Phelps' mom Debbie in Beijing. Bob Costas interviewed her and her record-setting spawn after Mike beat Mark Spitz's record by winning of eight medals in one Olympic games.

But Phelps pop, Fred, isn't there. Where is he? He's at home, in Baltimore. Watching the games on TV.

According to multiple sources, "Fred and Debbie separated for good in 1993, and the divorce was finalized the next year, when Michael was 9." This site implies that Fred "walked out" on Debbie and Michael, which I guess is possible, but I don't know since this is the only source of that I've found.

The same site claims to have a photo of Fred Phelps, but I think the photo on Cleveland.com is more accurate.

That article, written by Tim Warsinskey, asks the question, "Are you wondering what I'm wondering?" Tim wanted to know where Phelps' dad is; as a reason, he says that he is a father himself. I'm a dad as well, but I have to admit that "where's Michael's father?" isn't a question I asked as I watched the Olympics.

For his part, Fred said, "This is just about Michael. This is his glory, his time to shine, and I want him to get everything he wants." So even if he did "walk out" on his family (not saying he did, just saying if) at least he's not trying to claim that he's the reason Michael won all that gold.

image: Cleveland.com

Some Parenting Lessons From Michael Phelps's Mom

Gold (OK, Silver) Medal Girlcrush: Dana Torres

Volleyball hasn’t come a long way, baby

Baby survives tornado

Aussie Rower keeps his kids close

Egyptian woman gives birth to septuplets because she wanted a boy

Protesters and journalists arrested in China (video)

Whole lotta fakin' goin' on at the opening ceremony

Team more mature than coach

Jon Stewart Tackles Olympic Controversies

Olympics Opening Uses One Girl's Voice, Another Girl's Face

Do All These Chinese Gymnasts Look 16 to You?

Like father like son

33 year old mom wins silver medal, saves son from leukemia

Brett Singer — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Dara Torres is an inspiration to many, competing in the Olympics at age 41, and winning. But I think the story of Oksana Chusovitina, a German gymnast, might be even more inspiring.

Here's the deal: Oksana is from Uzbekistan. Her son was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 3. There were no beds for him in her home country. Because of her gymnastics ability, she was able to move to Germany and join their team, while also getting her little boy the treatment he needed.

He seems to be doing better now, and to make the story even better, she just won a silver medal. She's also 33 years old in a sport where 22 is considered really old. Congratulations to her, and to her son.

Source/image: Detroit Free Press

Olympic Parenting: Oksana Chusovitina and Alisher

Gold (OK, Silver) Medal Girlcrush: Dana Torres

Volleyball hasn’t come a long way, baby

Baby survives tornado

Aussie Rower keeps his kids close

Egyptian woman gives birth to septuplets because she wanted a boy

Protesters and journalists arrested in China (video)

Whole lotta fakin' goin' on at the opening ceremony

Team more mature than coach

Jon Stewart Tackles Olympic Controversies

Olympics Opening Uses One Girl's Voice, Another Girl's Face

Do All These Chinese Gymnasts Look 16 to You?

Like father like son

Dara Torres inspired two current Olympians

Brett Singer — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Back in the year 2000, Dara "Superwoman" Torres was at a swimming camp in California. Two sisters, Sandra and Danielle Fong, were fascinated by her, and the medal she had just won at the Santa Clara International Invitational. So she did what anyone would do: she gave them her medal.

OK, that's not what everyone would do. But it is what Dara did. And now, eight years later, both of the Fong sisters will be competing in the Olympics, although not in swimming. 18-year-old Sandra Fong is on the U.S. shooting team. Danielle Fong, 17, has cerebral palsy and will shoot for the U.S. at the Paralympics in September.

Torres, in case you didn't know, just won a Silver medal – at the age of 41. So yeah, we like her.

Image/source: nytimes.com

Read more:

Gold (OK, Silver) Medal Girlcrush: Dana Torres

33 year old mom wins silver medal, saves son from leukemia

Aussie Rower keeps his kids close

Protesters and journalists arrested in China (video)

Whole lotta fakin' goin' on at the opening ceremony

Team more mature than coach

Jon Stewart Tackles Olympic Controversies

Hunka hunka burnin Barbie

Olympics Opening Uses One Girl's Voice, Another Girl's Face

Matthew McConaughey keeps placenta

Do All These Chinese Gymnasts Look 16 to You?

Birth inspires lottery ticket purchase

Retarded movie boycott

Gold (OK, Silver) Medal Girlcrush: Dana Torres

Amy Kuras — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 21:02:00 GMT

I'll admit it – I have a huge, full-on girlcrush on Dara Torres. She's 41 years old, people, has a body most women half her age would envy, shows both really great sportsmanship (congratulating other swimmers with a big smile, asking the ref to delay the start of qualifying heats so a Swedish swimmer could switch out her ripped suit for a good one) and a tough competitive spirit, and oh yes, is the mom of a two-year-old.

Admittedly, she has significant financial resources – this June story in the New York Times magazine pegs her training costs at around $100,000 per year – and has won only one individual medal, the silver in the 50 meter freestyle she picked up last night.

But I find her enormously inspiring, that someone could come back from childbirth and be not just as good as she once was, but better. I think all of us who’ve struggled a little bit to find our new identities after having children can find some inspiration in that.

I also love that she shows mothers can be healthily competitive, and not just over the stupid stuff we can allow ourselves to get bogged down in like who has the nicest strller or the cutest haircut or the most stylishly attired kid. Most women are smarter than that, and athletes like Torres show how much smarter.

As for me? I am about as unathletic as a person can be (seriously, I once needed stitches from banging my head on a barbell) and the only medals I get are of the "participant" variety. But when I hop on a treadmill at the Y tomorrow, I'll be thinking about her and hoping someday I can kick one-tenth the ass.

A Kinder, Gentler Higher Ed

Adrienne Martini — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:00:00 GMT

We tend to focus on the parents of wee children around here, if only because a fair number of the 'derby-ers have kneebiters. Those with small kids can forget what it's like on the other end, when your almost-adult offspring is getting ready to graduate from high school and leap into higher education.

It's tough to be a senior, it seems, and have all these pressures and demands and stuff on you. And it's even worse now because there are more graduating seniors this year than in previous years, which means competition for available college slots is more intense than ever.

The college application process can be brutal, especially when a student (or, worse, his parents) pins all of his self-worth on which school accepts him. Making the transition from kid-to-proto-adult is tough and adding the stark in-or-out world of higher ed makes it ten times tougher. Given that I also teach at a college, I know firsthand just how tumultuous it can be.

Still, weep not for the kids who may or may not get into their school of choice. There is nothing wrong with trade school, I say. The world also needs auto mechanics and hair stylists. Weep instead for all of the trees who had to die in order to create the paper for thousands of college application essays, letters of recommendation and transcripts. Their lives came to an end just so that a kid's adult life can begin.

Is Your Kid Average? Better Get a Tutor!

Amy Kuras — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:11:00 GMT

Has the world – or at least the upper-middle-class parent portion of it – gone completely mad? We're doing tutors for preschoolers now?

Okay, my fellow 30- and 20-something parents, listen to me carefully now: When baby boomers grumble at us about hyper-parenting? This is what they are talking about. And this is the kind of whackdoodle idea that makes it extremely difficult to refute their argument.

I understand wanting your kids to do well, and I live in an incredibly bad school system, so some sort of supplemental education is probably in my kid's future. And, I mean she does go to a nice laid-back Montessori preschool now, versus a regular non-academic daycare while I surf the Web slave away at the computer.

But tutors? That just smacks of the "right preschool-right elementary-right college prep- Ivy League or bust" mentality that I think sucks all the joy out of learning for children and amps up the pressure to incredible levels at an age kids should be thinking about tying their shoes and writing their names.

One of the reasons I love her school is that they are all about capitalizing on a child's natural instincts to explore their world. With my own Montessori experiences as a kid, I knew I was learning, but I was having a blast and figuring things out in my own way. I sucked at math and still do, but sticking with a tutor for an hour a week would have been like torture. Letting me play with the math beads at school? That worked.

And it seems that most of the kids whose parents are doing this are not academically behind (CAN you be academically behind at age 3?), they are just not as ahead as their Type-A parents want them to be. "Normal, happy kid" is not good enough! After all, they'd better jump on the competitive, driven, joyless treadmill now or God forbid, maybe go to a state school….

Don’t Let One-Upmanship Become One-Up-Yours-Manship

makeitadouble — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:52:00 GMT

If you’re a mother or a father, which you probably are, and if you’re reading this, which you obviously are, then you’ve at one time or another experienced the brutal underground counter-culture of Parental One-Upmanship.

Come on, don’t play innocent, you know what I’m talking about. Your 11 month old takes her first brave hesitant steps and you rush to the nearest play-date, parent group, Gymboree, or Chuck E. Cheese to proudly announce your baby’s milestone accomplishment only to be knocked down a notch by parents extolling the unparalleled brilliance of their own ambulatory wunderkinds. “My Rosie walked at 7 months. My Charlie ran at 6 months. My Elizabeth did a back handspring out of my vagina.” You counter with a “Well she also said her first word this ….” And you’re interrupted with a flurry of “My Rosie said her first word at 7 months. My Charlie knew nursery rhymes at 6 months. My Elizabeth recited Shakespeare out of my vagina.”

Your immediate instinct is to skip the “One-Upmanship” and go straight to “One-Up-Yours-manship” and shout retaliatory haymakers at the sanctimonious antagonists you thought were your friends, but you don’t want to get pulled into a futile war of who’s child is bigger, better, faster, stronger. Your inner voice, the one that sounds like Keanu Reeves, presses the question, “What do you do? What DO you do?”

The Today show recently addressed why some parents engage in this type of exhausting and futile competitive banter. Well, the piece actually only concentrates on the over-the-top Moms for some reason, but I think we all know how competitive Dads can be as well (see Youth Sports + Living Vicariously Through Your Child + Inappropriate Juvenile Social Behavior)

Apparently the root of this evil can be traced back to personal identity insecurities and as a way to bolster a shaky self-image. Moms it seems, because again Dads were strangely left out of this psycho-mélange of aggressive parenting analysis, transitioning from the business world transfer that corporate mentality into their parenting style. In other cases the child becomes an extension of the parent and way to validate their self-worth.

Regardless of the cause, Today offers some sage advice to parents who don’t want a healthy relationship between friends to degenerate into a “the only way to make myself feel better is to make everyone else feel like shit” situation. Some suggestions are to empathize with the competitive parents and try to understand where they are coming from, to use non-competitive responses and to reduce the possible escalation of an exchange by not upping the comparative ante.

So, the next time “that” burgeoning stage mom brags about how her Elizabeth strolled from the birth canal rhythmically finger picking her umbilical chord like a Mariachi with a flamenco guitar, remember that it’s not about winning, it’s about appreciating ourselves and our families for who they are and about connecting with the people we love; and in our minds connecting with a perfectly placed uppercut.

Pretty Horsey Trading Cards For Boys (Yeah Right, For Girls, Natch)

Kelly Mills — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:33:00 GMT

Some of the folks behind the extra-popular Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon cards are hoping to lure girls with Bella Sara cards. Instead of featuring monsters and bizarre little creatures, these cards have pictures of horses. Gawd, always the girls and the horses. I've read that the prepubescent girl obsession with horses has links to, um, psycho-sexual development (don't even get me started on the unicorns with one big horn.) Anyhow the cards have girl power sayings on them like, "Use your love to bring peace to the world." Maybe they could also do one that says, "Your thing with horses is totally normal."

Because these cards are for girls, there's a little twist: theres no competitive element, unlike Pokemon and Magic. Because, as designer Gitte Odder Braendgaard says, "Girls like something beautiful, something nice to look at." Well, great, we don't want girls getting all competitive and stuff. So let's just review the card gender differences. Cards for boys: active, competitive, cards assigned strengths and powers. Cards for girls: pretty, passive, non-competitive. Yep, I just love when they make special toys for girls. Hey, math is hard! Shopping is fun! Get your mean old boy cards away from me!

Soccer Players Pee on Rival Field: Or Why I Can't Be a Soccer Mom

Kelly Mills — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:04:00 GMT

There's lots of reasons while I'll never be able to be the right kind of soccer mom. I can't give pointers, because I stink at ball sports. My snack-making skills are limited, and I'd hate for my kid to be mortified by my offering of broken multigrain crackers and browning apple slices. I detest sitting in lawn chairs, and my car only seats four comfortably. I lack the ability to get grass stains out of a uniform, and I'm totally the kind of mom who forgets to wash the gear until moments before the game, and has to dress her child in a slightly damp jersey while she's already standing on the field.

Also, when I read about these girls peeing on their rivals' field and then posting the pictures on the internet, my first thought was "hee hee hee."

See, I know that I should be appropriately outraged by the unsportsman/womanlike conduct. It flies in the face of the good, character-building aspect of the sport, of healthy competitiveness, of the self-esteem that comes from taking wins and losses gracefully. But I loooove sports rivalry pranks. Mascot-stealing and uniform sabotage entertain me. Look, I draw the line at violence and post-game fights and getting overly worked up about what is, after all, just a game. But peeing? That's just funny.

I don't pretend to have the high moral ground here, and I can only imagine if my child came home with a suspension notice after taking a leak on the competition's home turf and my disciplinary response was a high-five and hysterical laughter. Maybe my inner frat boy is just too powerful. That's why I'm staying away from the field. For the greater good.

Are Sports Too Soft?

Kelly Mills — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 20:30:00 GMT

We've had lots of interesting discussions on kids and sports, but boy, there's always territory to mine here. One parent on Catholic Answers Forum posted a whole laundry list of questions regarding what sports parents choose and why. ("How important is the possibility of a professional career in the sport?" I'll field that one: unless you have already given your kid steroids or named him Tiger, dreeeeam on.) Some of the questions and answers are pretty good, and then I read this response:

The one thing I hate about kids team sports as of late is the new "we can't be competitive" attitude. I don't understand getting to play positions you haven't worked for (my own kids included) and I don't understand the "everyone gets a trophy" mentality. I don't understand telling a kid who's born to play shortstop that they can't play there because we have to let someone who's not qualified play there. It's like it's the worst thing in the world if our kids fail or are disappointed. It's not helpful in preparing them for a world that should work on the merit system. When I was a kid (a most overused phrase) we played where the coach put us and we were happy to be playing. If we wanted to be in a certain spot, we worked harder.

I do think this raises a real interesting point about the current obsession with protecting kids from any kind of disappointment or possible sense of inadequacy. Let's not romanticize the days when some kids were picked last for teams (and it probably still happens, because I don't recall most gym teachers being a forward-thinking, egalitarian bunch) but at the same time, what does it mean to work hard if everyone gets an equal turn regardless of effort? I dunno, as an unathletic kid the whole competitive thing freaked me out so much I was terrified to even attempt most games. But I can also see some validity to this argument, especially for older kids. What do you think?

Oh God, I've Become One of Them: Confessions of a Competi-Mommy

Jessica Ashley (Sassafrass) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 23:01:00 GMT

I joke (sort of) that I am going to buy Lil E one of those quirky kiddie t-shirts I saw once that says, "I am not a performing monkey." And then I am going to put it in the back of his armoire and save it only for the days he goes to my mother's house. You see, my mother, as every other wonderful grandma the world over, beams with pride over her one and only grandchild who can count to fourteen and does this booty-shake dance that involves actually grabbing and lifting up one cheek of his booty. She wants everyone she encounters, friends and cashiers at the dollar store alike, to witness this surge of adorable brililance in a three-foot human being.

She's (clearly) not the only one in the family who gets her brag on about our boy (as evidenced in above paragraph). I find myself slipping pieces of our mother-son conversations into the regular back-and-forth with the other playgroup mommies. And when I do, it is like some hormonal wave tsunamis my good sense and I spill an anecdote that I immediately know has cast me off with those other women in the sea of competi-mommy. The worse part is, that comment about how Lil E has already played his first nine holes comes so darn easy, even though I try very hard not to engage parents in their own competitive talk baiting and even though I feel quite happy to snark all over whatever they say once they are out of hearing range.

And this little human and flawed foible of parenting I keep casting off and reeling in is exactly why I gasped a little and laughed a lot when I read Rebecca Tyrrel's own plunge into competi-momminess. Appalled and seemingly unable to help herself, she broke her own rules about boasting about the kids and even got a bit pushy in the process. I might be rationalizing here, but maybe it is OK to let that parent-pride swell up once in a while, even to the point of self-abhorring obnoxiousness, so long as we admit it at some point. So long as we do our very best to keep it real.