PAD Jan. 6: Breakfast

My daughter started swimming when she was in 6th grade. Three years later my son started swimming. So, we have been a swim family for 9 years.

Anyone who doesn't have kids who swim year round for a club team really has no idea what this entails. Dance parents and gymnastics parents understand because those are very much like being a swim parent.

It means daily and some times more practices. It means the pool becomes your second home. It means traveling and staying in hotels several weekends a year. It means spending four to five hours sitting in bleachers or crash areas to see your child swim a total of about 5 minutes or to watch them swim a mile after an already long weekend. It means getting up long before the sun just to make sure your kid can be in the pool for a 6:30 am warm up time. It means eating concession stand food for breakfast while inhaling chlorine fumes.