Probably not in September. |
Lol, I’m sure the Atlanta families who are forced to endure plentiful parking, 2 ten lane competition pools, live-streaming, and an abundance of seating at the former competition venue for the 1996 Atlanta summer Olympics would much rather swelter outside and watch the kids swim in a shallow pool 6 lane pool. |
OK well maybe they all post on an Atlanta area forum - I am not sure. |
It is the activity my kids choose to do every summer. They are at the pool all day and love every aspect of it. They also compete in dive so it is pretty much our life until All Stars. As long as they love it, I will support them. I’d much rather have them “obsessed” with this than having to deal with kids who are looking for something to do all summer or spending all day indoors or on devices. I love that they are outdoors with all the other kids in our close community and making friends of all ages. |
I’m pretty sure the kids are not the ones posting on this board obsessively about NVSL minutiae. |
I’ll play…
There are ~102 swim teams in NVSL. I see maybe 3 or 4 pools. I’m interested/curious in seeing the comparisons across the divisions. For example, which pools should I brace myself for bad bathrooms or pack bug spray in the kids swim bags if they are in a grassy area. I think it’s better to discuss now when everything is fresh in everyone’s mind from the past season. |
I've lived in atlanta and I don't think people there are as obsessed. I'm pretty sure atlanta summer swim alumni never created a company to report on their summer swim league, for example. |
Our kids participate in summer swim and enjoy it but we are not obsessed at all.
I think it is summer camp for some of the adults. They go back and see all their friends and they are "in" (because their pool is small and everyone is in or their pool is competitive and their kid is an A meet swimmer). They get to feel like comfortable and in the cool club for a short window of time. They know what to expect, who will they see, and pretty much everything that will happen for 8-10 weeks. And it's not year round so just when everyone might be sick of each other, it's over. I read a book recently called Bad Summer People about a bunch of NYers who summer on Fire Island every year and don't see each other the rest of the year. Honest to god it reminded me of summer swim. |
The other thing that reminded me from this book is some swim parents have told me they hardly socialize during the winter. (That is the case in this book with some of these NYers.) Imagine your social life is kind of slow the rest of the year. Summer swim would be a highlight. Built in social life. |
I’ll freely admit that I am vastly more social over the summer at the pool than the other 9 months of the year. I can walk up to the pool with a bottle of wine and spend the evening chatting with whoever is there. Socializing takes more effort when the pool is closed. |
Do you understand what a rec league is? |
If it means having to sit though ~1,250 swimmers on the day your kid swims, that sounds miserable. |
I’ll play; it’s a chance for your mostly non athletic kid to participate in a sport and as a parent, this is your time to hang with the cool parents. |
This is really not specific to the DMV area. This is pretty pervasive throughout the US. |
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