Our neighborhood swim season has begun. We live in the suburbs, with lots of developments all backed in. Many of the neighborhoods sponsor a swim team and they all compete in a summer league. They hire a college student to coach and all of the older neighborhoods teens help coach as well. The parents all volunteer to help with setup, judging lanes, timing, selling snacks and anything else that needs to be done.

It's a nice tradition and a great way to meet people in the neighborhood. Kids get to know the kids they don't know from school or their street. As a parent, you get a chance to meet other parents - actually know their name and match them up with their kids.

Plus it is a great summer activity and for the minimal cost of joining, basically free swim lessons all summer. And hey practice is in your development - for us, a three minute drive to the pool. You can even drop them off and go home or run an errand. Or you can just sit there on a lounge and relax with a good book.

Of course the endless wet towels, the swim meets that get rained out and rescheduled, the never ending begging for money for soda and snacks (eschewing the carrots sticks and gatorade you packed) and the looking for lost goggles can get tiring. The car starts to smell slightly musky after so much dampness.

We don't tell our daughter to win, she's just not that good of a swimmer. She'll win a few heats during the season but that's about it. We tell her to do the best she can and that she should work on beating her best time, not wanting to be first. I suppose if she was great, we'd change strategies but we just tell her to try to pick off the one kid in front of her.

You are so happy for your child when they swim well in a meet and the hugs they give you are great - and the residue dampness from those hugs gives you that damp feeling for hours. At that point, you begin eyeball the hotdogs and nachos yourself. You are on your third Gatorade because you've been there since 4:30pm. Then again, this is how your team makes money so snack on! It isn't like you are leaving soon, it's only 7pm and it might be 10pm before you get out of there.

At least you get to watch your child in about six races. Plus there is nothing more fun than watching the six and under kids racing. They are adorable and trying so hard - their conquering their fears to jump might be as hard a thing as anyone there is doing.

Overall though, it is more fun than a bother. This is our third year and I'm happy we live in such a nice development that our kids get to do this year after year - competing and getting better each year.