You don't see the old 'Mom's Taxi' joke as much as you did when I was a kid. The parent act to lampoon - the sports pack Mule. The bags that parents carry about with newborns with the essentials are nothing when you start to check out what some parents pack and carry to various sporting events for their children.

The average recreation sports child needed their jersey and a ball, and not much else. A wider variety of sports have been available across the board, as well as more levels of competition involved. Travel teams that started as a place for excellent teenage athletes are now common for slightly better than average ten year olds or in some cases, pretty much anyone who'll write a big check, buy the gear and show up.

I'm not ragging on the system - we are part of it in a big way. The kids do benefit from more opportunities of course. I'm just chuckling at how involved it has all gotten. In that vein, I'm checking my list for the swim meet we have to report for today at 4:30pm - we expect to get home about 9:30pm so we've got five hours to watch our child race in six races. Yikes.

All this for a sport in the pool...

Swim meet list:
Dry towel
Swim towel
Two sets of junior racing goggles
Sunblock
Sharpie
Swim team suit
Swim team cap
Swim coverup
Shorts and tshirt (check sun level to see if we need rashguard shirt)
Ipod
Headphones
Deck of cards
Four gatorades
Water bottles
Grapes
Brownies
Money for dinner
Camera, lenses, batteries and memory card
Chair
Cooler
Magazine