I recently read an article about mistakes that swim parents make (I'll link to it if I find it again). I don't make a lot of them. I try really hard not to pressure CK, we don't force her to go to practice more than the minimum 3 days per week (her decision if she wants a 4th day). I realized very early on that I'm not a swim coach so I don't mess with her coach's instructions. I'm supportive.
But one of the pieces of advice is to not co-opt her thing. Swimming is her thing and from day one I've researched and learned more and more about swimming to the point where you'd think it was my thing. I get overly excited by her success. And now I'm swimming 6 days a week. Have I co-opted swimming from her?
She enjoys teaching me but resists the idea of going up to the pool just to swim. Maybe it's that she's getting exactly the right amount of swimming now and doesn't need any more or maybe I'm too involved in her "thing". Since her swimming is more important than my swimming, I'll just back off on how much I talk about it and see if that makes it better.
But, then again, her first meet of the season is in a week and a half, and it will be hard to keep the Crazy out of Crazy Swim Dad then.
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You're doing great, "Dad". I'm actually a Crazy Soccer Mom, and I know exactly what you mean about how hard it is to keep the Crazy out of it. Good thing I have zero desire to play soccer! :-)
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