Ice Cream

I love ice cream. Let me explain. There is a certain ice cream franchise that I took my wonderful wife to the very first day she moved in to my house. I remember that day it as our real true anniversary. It was January 21, 1988. Yes, that’s right, in the dead of winter. The temperature that day was 10 degrees.

The girl working at the counter said I was the only person she had seen all day, and that included her boss. My girlfriend at the time, the Saint that she was, humored me by going out in the bitter cold for ice cream right after she had moved in. I’m sure it was not her idea of a celebration.

I have all the franchises phone numbers listed in my little white book along with rankings for each store. Friends will email me to check on which one I recommend when they have friends coming into town, IN THE SUMMER!

I recently was told this by a parent: “As long as my son keeps his grades up, and he loves playing this sport, we are going to keep doing it.” He described trips to Baltimore, which games got rained out or at least shortened, without any angst.  They have trips to Washington and Boston coming up. The tone and inflection in his voice showed ne that he was partnering with his child in this sport. He loved the status and travel name dropping or adult Olympics as I call it.

There were other people around when he told me about this, so I did not want to get into a discussion with him, We are not a gotcha company. I simply gave him my card and explained that his son could get better at his sport by not playing it.

 I have seen hundreds of children keep playing a sport just to get their parents approval!

For you reading here, let me explain.  It is unhealthy to play one sport year round, travel, elite whatever. Your chid’s chance of injury increases dramatically. Have you ever flown and it took all day? Remember how tired you were from just sitting around at the airports and on the plane? Now think of driving 7 hours in a car ONE WAY, and the effects of that on a young body.  Then they play multiple games over the weekend, then drive another 7 hours home.Lastly, life for children is about new experiences, meeting new people; fun, failing coping, and experimentation.

I love ice cream. I can’t eat it every day, it’s unhealthy.  I would get sick of it.

Sports are a microcosm of life.