sports

Coffee chat: Fundraising Parents

| Patti Webb

My first fundraiser was in kindergarten. Our school was selling candy bars, and I don’t remember if I volunteered to take a box or was voluntold. But they were chocolate almond candy bars and I really liked those.

When I got home, that box of candy bars sat on the counter for a month. My mom had no clue why they were there and, in the end, she paid the minimum $20 just to cover it. Obviously, I didn’t win any top-seller prizes, but I did get to enjoy the candy bars.

Over my childhood, I had to sell Girl Scout cookies, pocket calendars, magazine subscriptions, pizza kits, program ads, and sponsored race miles. I went door-to-door by myself at 7 and never again after that. I’ve done phonathons, ran car washes, and organized parents’ weekends for my club teams.

Now with an advertising degree and a work history that includes actual advancement fundraising, I have the mad skillz take my daughters’ money-raising requirements to the next level. However, you still won’t catch me knocking on doors and cold-calling businesses.

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Child(ish) Reads: Soccer Dad

| Patti Webb

This summer, I had a super quick Audible that I really enjoyed. We’ve had several posts on navigating youth sports, from why they are awesome to how they can be detrimental. What I was missing was a non-biased first-hand parent account.

What I liked about this short memoir from David Murray is that he fully admits that he’s not “sporty”. He knew nothing about soccer. He wasn’t going to be a de facto coach, and he wasn’t going to push his daughter to uphold a family legacy. This is his parent story of how his daughter, Scout, started in kiddie soccer and followed her soccer goals all the way through her graduation at Ohio University.

Soccer Dad by David Murray.
Blurb: Soccer Dad is the story of a soccer-ignorant, sports-ambivalent writer who saw his daughter from the kiddie leagues through the travel-sports gauntlet to a coveted Division I scholarship. And then realized his work had only begun.

David Murray’s daughter, Scout, loved soccer from toddlerhood. Her drive and skill pulled the Murray family into the world of youth sports—one as culturally obsessive as it is economically exclusive, where each new achievement presents more challenges.

Youth sports is fun, but it isn’t simple—especially for parents determined to raise a rounded human being.

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Coffee Chat: Kids Sports and the Long Game

| Patti Webb

Yes, we’ve been writing more and more about youth sports. But is it really that big of a surprise, since our kids are now 2-3 years into their teams and activities?

Just like OT, everything is foundational. What they are learning now is going to shape their social skills and identity 5, 10, 20+ years down the road.

Our kids’ sports experiences are vastly different, and they are uncovering a lot of skills and lessons for us parents to dive into. We’re also seeing a lot of bad habits thanks to sports system that’s getting harder to navigate.

Therein lies the conundrum: How long will our kids be on this path before it starts turning into a tearful, stressful, time-sucking money pit? Can we walk the line, or are we already in the vicious cycle?

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The Wide World of Youth Sports

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

This past February, the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina held our attentions for three weeks straight, including our kids. Watching hours of slaloms and biathlon and speed skating, completely engrossed.

Both the Winter and Summer Olympic Games pique kid’s interest in new sports. They are at an age where they think they can pick up these sports so easily and they want to try everything. What, like it’s hard? We found ourselves Googling where the nearest luge center was.

But with the Winter Olympics particularly, the countries bringing home the most medals aren’t always the biggest or richest. This year, Norway, the Netherlands, and Germany were in the top five medal count, along with the US and Italy the host country.

Are they just better at snow sports? Do they start their kids on the Olympic track early? Yes and no.

It raised a bigger question about youth sports around the world and how different countries develop young athletes. Turns out, different countries structure youth sports very differently and the contrasts are big enough that they shape kids’ experiences, family culture, and even national athletic success.

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Talking Body: Kids and Body Schema

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Kids have an enormous amount to learn, but before they can take on reading, writing, math, social skills, or even coordinated movement, they need a basic sense of themselves.

As children develop, it takes years for them to truly understand themselves—the “me I feel inside,” the “me others see,” and the “me I’m becoming.” That long process begins much earlier than most people realize. It starts when the brain first learns the physical boundaries of the body.

Those early signals (movement, balance, joint and muscle feedback, and deep pressure) are the “me sensations.” They give the brain its first clues about where the body begins and ends. Over time, these sensations fill in the brain’s internal “map of me,” the foundation for later self‑awareness, confidence, and coordinated movement.

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