A Post from the Past!

Here’s a little flash from the past! Our Director of Operations, Amy L, is one of the founders of Dynowear and this is what she originally posted back in 2011 when she posted her first blog.

Thanks for taking the time to read my introductory blog. As a mother of three growing and active boys, I’m constantly on the go and interacting with other parents in the same boat. As kids develop their mobility and learn to use their bodies for activities beyond walking and eating, parents have no choice but to keep up. We all want to encourage our children to be physically active but the big question is – can we keep up?

Surviving the toddler-to-teen years of your child’s growth is a fulltime job that requires physical and emotional strength as well as the ability to multitask and work well with others – Can you say carpooling! One thing I’ve learned over the years as I plan the chaotic family schedule of social and recreational activities, is the importance of taking time for myself.

At first I wasn’t sure how to go about it but then I realized that the kids were almost always at a sports and recreation facility of some kind (the pool, the tennis club, the arena, the soccer or baseball field, etc.), and that I was usually there with them. Often in a support role – chauffeur, coach, cheerleader, nurse, etc. – but occasionally just standing around waiting for an activity to end. If you can’t beat ’em, join ‘em as they say and so I began trying the activities the boys seemed to be enjoying so thoroughly.

I started out by simply kicking a soccer ball around on the sidelines with other parents or kids or doing laps in the pool while one of the boys took diving lessons. But it was when we decided to buy a family membership at the local tennis club that I really found my game. The kids spent so much time on the court taking lessons or playing with each other and their friends that I was often left sitting there with other parents, sipping on summer drinks or nibbling on healthy and not-so-healthy snacks.

Even though I’d never played tennis before, one day while my eldest was playing with friends in the club pool, I picked up his racket and began hitting against the practice wall. To be honest, I did this mostly to avoid the snacks but I guess I was also curious to see if I could manage to keep the ball in play for any length of time. The practice wall was centrally located and I dreaded the fact that people would be able to watch me make a fool of myself but I managed to block that out long enough to hit the wall above the line that first time – and I was hooked!

That was two summers ago and I’m now on the ladder board at the club and on the courts almost as much as the kids. People who know me know that I’m not big into sweating and dirt but there’s something totally liberating about running around on the clay courts trying to keep the ball in play as long as I can. The boys have even started asking me if I won or lost, which is quite the role reversal from our normal post-activity conversations. So, my advice to you parents of active children is to join them. Who knows, one day you might even beat them (at their own game)!