Olympic Fun

A couple of days ago I published a blog post discussing how watching the Olympics with my daughter has been a fantastic experience.  I wanted to reiterate how awesome these past four evenings have been.  There's no better way to spend an evening than cuddling on the couch with my daughter watching the Olympics and explaining to her some of the science.  So here's a message to all dads (and moms):  Find some time over the next 2 weeks to watch the Olympics with your child.  They'll experience sports they've never seen before and they'll begin to understand how much work goes in to becoming a successful Olympian.

Last night we watched diving, swimming, and a bit of women's gymnastics.  I let her stay up a little later than normal so she could watch the U.S. women do the vault.  She was very eager from the start to watch gymnastics.  For those of you who don't know me, this was a big sacrifice on my part.  I'm very much a sleep nazi and find it very important that my daughters have a set bed time that we stick to.  But how could I deny her last night?  Next week she starts school, so it will be back to a set bed time, but since there's no school right now, I didn't see the harm.

The women's gymnastics final went very late so my daughter only watched the first rotation (vault), but she was super excited in the morning when I told her the U.S. women won the gold.  She had a huge smile on her face when she found out.  That smile confirmed that I made the right choice last night.

Again, dads, moms, guardians, take time out of your schedule and sit down with your child and watch the Olympics.  They only occur every 4 years (or 2 years for the summer to winter switch).  In 4 years your child may have no interest at all in the Olympics.  Or maybe your daughter will be a teenager and sitting next to mom and dad on the couch is no longer "cool".  Take advantage of the time while it's still there.