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My wide world of sports: four daughters teach a mother the lessons of life and sport.

Article Excerpt
During prenatal classes before the birth of our first child, my husband, Mike, and I learned that children follow the nutrition habits of their father. That's unfortunate, I thought, since his food pyramid consists of just three food groups -- cheeseburgers, french fries and corn. Four daughters later, the prenatal facilitator's prediction came true.

Fortunately, to offset his bad food habit, Mike has a good habit his daughters have also followed -- fitness. Running, skiing, golfing, softball, racquetball and skiing, among other things, make his fitness menu much broader than his food menu. Sports ate his passion.

Every time I was pregnant, Mike waited with great anticipation for a son -- someone to coach, someone to play with. It never happened, but having all daughters didn't prevent him from making physical activity a central value in their lives.

Intentional fitness

What I call "intentional" fitness took hold in our home in 1982 when Mike read a newspaper story reporting that the average 13 year old in the United States could only do one pull-up. The next day he took Maggie, Casey and Molly, then 6, 4 and 2, to the local playground where he hoisted them up to the monkey bars and had them practice pull-ups. Our daughter, Jesse, born in 1985, never got an official pull-up initiation. Fitness already had a stronghold when she arrived.

Playing catch in the yard, shooting baskets in the driveway or taking a training run for a dad/daughter 5K became a normal routine for Mike and the girls. When they were old enough for community sports programs, the girls sampled them all -- t-ball, soccer, basketball -- to find out which they liked best. Swimming was the only activity I insisted on; not for...

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