Kid has announced she wants to be an Olympic swimmer. How to respond?
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Anonymous
| Wow OP, is this your only/first kid? Did you not know kids have big dreams, some realistic and some wildly unrealistic, that change on a whim? This statement requires zero thought on your part. If she asks to do swimming as a year round activity, look into club teams. Do not look into club teams based on her “goal” of becoming an Olympic swimmer. Also you have no idea if she is a good swimmer and/or has any talent yet. Summer swimming is very, very different from year round. Don’t overthink this. |
Anonymous
This seems like the best advice of the bunch. I have a kid who was slow from 8-12 and fast now at 15; things change but developing a work ethic is the best end goal there is |
Anonymous
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To me, one of the main reasons for the Olympics is to give children wonderful dreams. Didn't you ever want to be an elite ballet dancer, a concert pianist, or an underwater explorer?
Get her good year-round coaching and enjoy. |
Anonymous
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You respond by saying you like their confidence and willingness to have big dreams, and that being an Olympian takes a special combination of natural talent and very very hard work. And that’s it. Don’t weigh in with your opinion on what you think their odds are at achieving this. They will get this feedback from the real world if they pursue competitive swimming.
Take it one year at a time. If she loves to swim, find a winter team and see how that goes. See how the transition to 50s goes when she’s on the 9-10 age group. Don’t get too worked up either way before puberty. She may become a great swimmer. She may not. Either way there is much to be gained by working hard at something you love. Realistically — if an 8 year old isn’t setting league records in summer swim, they probably aren’t on the path to being a future Olympian. There are exceptions but the truly special swimmers tend to be fast at 8 and stay that way. Especially girls. I speak from years of experience in the sport. |
Anonymous
| Are you and your husband 6'? She's got a chance! |
Anonymous
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We have some Olympic and national team adjacency in our family, so at times the Olympics have become a bit more normal than they actually are.
My DD definitely holds Olympics for her American Girl dolls, watches nationals for her sport, and watches the olympics with stars in her eyes. Once in a while she’ll drop a bomb like “maybe when I go to the Olympics…” and that’s when we gently reel her back in. Things we talk about: 1) what sports she might want to do in HS 2) what the girls she knows on the national team have to do/sacrifice to have a chance 3) what compromises she’s willing to make for her sport (homeschool was a big no from her, quitting soccer and eating more protein were easy yeses!) 4) how hard her college athlete babysitters worked to get their roster spots And most importantly 5) the role of luck. Olympians are regular people who happen to be really lucky. Except for Katie Ledecky or Simone Biles. They are born with the right bodies, with talent, and with the willingness to work really hard. They are born in the right place at the right time- no one on the national nordic team lives in Florida. They are born in a year with just the right amount of competition so that they are pushed to excel but not squeezed out by someone who is a tiny bit better. They luck into the right coaches or the right politics when important decisions are being made. Most importantly: they have their best day on the day that they need to. We have dear friends who had their best days the day before a trial, or the month before, or were injured during selection camp. We take my DD to lots of women’s collegiate sporting events so she can see the breadth of sports excellence at levels that are not the Olympics. It helps her understand how many great performances exist beyond 2 weeks every 4 years. |
Anonymous
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“Woo hoo let’s see which city it will be at in 8 years so we can plan our travel! “
What is wrong with you people? The kid is 8. Make it a geography lesson. Have fun with it. Cheer her on. stop treating everything like a hopeless slog. The negativity is so strange to me. And yes, you encourage kids’ big dreams. Not because you think they will end up on an Olympic platform. But because they will be encouraged to aim high and try new tough scary things and then as their dreams change as they mature (which will happen naturally) they will still believe they can achieve great things. |
Anonymous
My kid will be a Olympic bucket crab like me 🦀 🪣 |
Anonymous
Ride it out then and see if she likes 4:30 am practices. If she can't manage those, you'll know |
Anonymous
Yup. You're thinking way too far ahead at this point if you "definitely think" she could be a competitive high school or college swimmer. She's eight. And, yes, I do sometimes consider my kids' long-term futures - but not in any remotely definitive terms. The next step for any kid that age, for any sport, is to increase the amount of practices and competition and see how they handle it. That she has big dreams is hardly rare at that age, laudable though it is. |
Anonymous
| Some great ideas here. We all thought we were going to be Nadia Comaneci or President when we were 8. Don’t overthink. |
Anonymous
| Tell them that it’s awesome to have goals. But realize the are also 8 and things can change next week. Being an Olympian is a lot of work. A lot! At 8, they have no idea whatsoever. Be positive. It’s only for the strong. |
Anonymous
| Does she swim club now? |
Anonymous
My kid said the same at 8! Will swim in college, but I think she's realized the Olympics are likely out 
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Anonymous
| Don't worry, OP. You can say that's great, we will come watch. My kid wanted to go to the Olympics in her sport as late as age 11. That goes away eventually. For now, just give her short responses (will need to work very hard type) and do year-round swimming. Good luck! I promise you, eventually that will pass. |