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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NoVa swim team skeptic turned believer here.  I am an introvert.  I grew up poor in a northeastern city that had just one public pool 10 miles from my house; we never visited.  I did t even learn to swim until I was 12.  We don’t live in a subdivision with an HOA; I live in an old house in an area of Fairfax County that’s seen a development boom and has lots of McMansions.  My spouse and I are both socially awkward government workers.  If all I knew of summer swim was reading this thread, I would NEVER have signed my child up for swim.  I am SO glad I did - it is my child’s most joy-filled activity and I have come to love volunteering.

Mind you, I was intimidated at every level.  Our closest pool is a Div 2 NVSL team.  The neighborhood is wealthy and full of seemingly cliquey SAHM’s.  My kid didn’t go to the neighborhood school.  I didn’t know anyone.  But it was less than $200 to join both swim and dive!  That’s nothing for HOURS of instruction!  My kid didn’t have private coaching or do year round swim, and we had vacations planned during the season, so I didn’t expect to do A Meets.  I’m Hugely busy at work and in grad school.  My spouse has medical issues preventing being able to volunteer at meets, so it all fell on me.  I dreaded all but my kid’s smile at being on a team.

It’s now near the end of the season and I am SO sad.  I have come to llove it as much as my kid does!  I hated doing concessions and meet clean up…it was too hard to be a newbie for those.  I found my niche as a timer.  It’s the best antidote to my constant work stress and Ben g tethered to my phone.  I HAVE to be 100% in the moment.  I love cheering g on the kids. I love getting triples and bonding with the other timers.  And my kid has just blossomed and even swam in A meets and won a relay carnival race!  We facedNO pressure or deck I stink for having to bring of town for meets.  Everyone is SO supportive of the kids.

I still find some of it cringey… my kid and I are total awkward ducks at pep rallies.  We don’t enjoy dress up, face paint, or cutesy stuff.   Chalk drawings seem pointless.  But I can see why people love that stuff.

My kid loves saving ribbons with times from every meet to track growth over time.  It’s made my kid a Goal setter and SO proud of growth.  The jr coaches have made my kid so happy by praising and noticing so much growth.

I was daunted by 15 hours required volunteering.   I considered just letting them take my check.  But I now have well over 20 hours in and have really enjoyed most of them.  So grateful I tried this before reading this thread and hope otger parents aren’t turned off.

[/quote]

I agree with all of this. I love summer swim and  as do my kids. It is seriously their favorite time of the year. They love swimming, but also love the social aspect of swim team; hanging out with the older kids, traditions before and after meets, fun Friday practices (pancake breakfast, raft day, diving for coins). We plan our summer vacations so we don's miss meets. We are committed.

My husband and I volunteer a ton and overall I don't mind. I too enjoy timing and having something to do during the meets. At the same time I am at the point in the season where I am tired. I work full time and rushing to get to the B met to time when there are parents who have never volunteered for a singe meet sitting there chatting with their friends is frustrating. Our team doesn't have a requirement for volunteer hours because they don't want it to prohibit kids from being on swim team, but i am so ready for that policy to change.  [/quote]

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