Anonymous wrote:To feed their own egos? I see parents pushing kids like this all of the time for bragging rights.

Bingo!

To feed their own egos? I see parents pushing kids like this all of the time for bragging rights.

Both my kids walked at 10 months and are not athletic.

As far as the original question, my SIL took to heavy drinking when her son failed at baseball (and academics) at a DIV 3 school. They had been paying huge bucks for years for private coaching, etc. It was hard to watch BIL and SIL putting so much emphasis on the sports, and for what??

Any random 3-5 year old will ride a bike like a fool every single day all day if you let them. Mine wouldn't even stop to eat. Until I beat them. I beat them with sticks.

After he was beaten. Beaten with sticks.

Early walking is not correlated with athletic ability.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When DS was walking before 9 months and the pediatrician comment that he would probably be athletic I know my husband was thrilled. Fast forward 3 years and DS is some biking crazy person. Like it wouldn't be difficult for him to do 10 miles at a time. DS would have loved a MLB player but I think he now has his hopes set on the Tour de France...
DH got an extra masters in sports management from GW for fun and now I think he is hoping he can use it to be one of our kids agents. Deep down I think he knows it's not going to happen

cool. never knew early walking indicates athletic ability. i don't have any early walkers.

I did. 9.5 months, yet as a 9 year old, my kid is the clutziest nt child I have ever met in my entire life.

My stepson is one of those kids who enjoys sports and thinks that means he's guaranteed to be a pro athlete one day. He is athletic, but is no star. He plays many sports (middle school) but does not particularly excel at any specific one and is VERY small. I think he likes that they keep him busy and active, but in a couple years here when he gets into high school he's going to have to face facts that pro sports is not in his future. DH has accepted this and doesn't encourage any pipe dreams of DSS one day being a pro athlete. He encourages him to do well in the sports he's in, but has made it clear that there's expectations of college and a career, and not banking on the minuscule chance of being drafted to the NFL.

Anonymous wrote:When DS was walking before 9 months and the pediatrician comment that he would probably be athletic I know my husband was thrilled. Fast forward 3 years and DS is some biking crazy person. Like it wouldn't be difficult for him to do 10 miles at a time. DS would have loved a MLB player but I think he now has his hopes set on the Tour de France...
DH got an extra masters in sports management from GW for fun and now I think he is hoping he can use it to be one of our kids agents. Deep down I think he knows it's not going to happen

cool. never knew early walking indicates athletic ability. i don't have any early walkers.

Anonymous wrote:Well, in our case DH does not want that for our sons.

DH was an athlete through college and both my DS's are pretty athletic. But DH wants them to play for the fitness and teamwork concept. He has never indicated that he has any aspirations for them past high school.

But DH's father was a pro football player for 3 seasons in the 1960's and he can barely walk now and is in constant pain. DH also has chronic knee and back problems that are results from his athletic endeavors. He does not want that for our kids.

I would never want that for my sons, either.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/sports/football/concussion-effects-linger-for-two-ex-jets.html?scp=2&sq=football%20concussion&st=cse