A mom recently asked a Harvard professor who is cited among other places, MSN Health & Fitness, whether it is safe to let her two young children with asthma take swimming lessons this summer. The good doctor's advice:

Exercise is absolutely a good idea for kids with asthma. It goes a long way toward keeping all kids healthy, and toward preventing obesity, which is becoming epidemic among children in the U.S. Exercise can also improve asthma. Studies show that it can help children with asthma breathe better. And swimming is a good choice because it is less likely to cause asthma symptoms than other forms of exercise.

But… in a small study done in Belgium, children who swam as infants in chlorinated swimming pools were more likely to have asthma later in childhood. It appeared that the chlorine may have damaged the lining of the lungs. And the American Academy of Pediatrics doesn’t recommend swimming lessons for children under the age of 4 because before then children aren’t developmentally ready to learn to swim (and might end up with a false sense of security around water).

I’d suggest a compromise—another thing that’s common to many marital disagreements.

Don’t enroll the 8-month-old—wait until he can really learn. Go ahead and enroll the 4-year-old, but look for a pool that is well ventilated. An outdoor pool would be best. Talk to your doctor about using asthma medications to prevent any problems—and make sure both of your children are seeing the doctor regularly to monitor their asthma.

I had no idea about the AAP's recommendation! I have seen many children take lessons before the age of 4.

Ari is 4 and I plan to enroll him for lessons this summer. Swimming is such an important skill to have.

What's up with our fellow beings in the blogosphere?

Congratulations to Feministing for celebrating its four-year anniversary. Keep up the good work, ladies.

Speaking of feminism, California Assemblywoman Karen Bass was just sworn in as Speaker of the California Assembly -- the first African American woman to serve in this powerful role, according to MomsRising. She is also a mother who has advocated for, among other things, universal healthcare. MomsRising is floating around a congratulatory letter and petition reminding her of the importance of making sure all children in the state of California have health care coverage.  

Thank you to Daddy Dialectic for pointing out this fabulous rant by Knocked Up (and in Law School):

I have heard many women say that a father could just never love a child the way a mother does, and can't take care of them the way a mother does either. I don't believe that's true at all, and I think it's disrespectful to all the men who are spectacular parents. And I want to know why no one tries to make men feel guilty because they work outside the home? That's the real question. Why does Law School Mom state that it matters whether she or a nanny takes her kids to school, but makes no mention of her husband in that scenario? Why do we as mothers put all of the guilt on ourselves (and on other women) instead of equally between both parents? Why is his career important, not to be inconvenienced by taking care of children, but hers isn't? Why is she a bad mother for working, but he's a good father for providing for his family? These double-standards are harmful for all parents, and perhaps the work environment for all parents, not just women, would improve if society expected men to take a more active role in all aspects of parenting, instead of viewing it as an abomination.

Amen, sister. To be fair, the fathers I know are very hands-on parents so this is changing.

Fellow MTer Dana wondered in her blog Mombian if lesbian moms watch sports they otherwise would not watch in order to expose their children to them.

When I got my son's t-ball schedule I winced in pain. Two games a week? Two precious evenings a week given over to a sport? And in May? When we have so much else going on?

"Don't worry," my husband said. "He'll get bored with it. We won't be going to all the games."

But you know what? None of us has gotten bored, least of all my son.

If you haven't heard the story about Central Washington and Western Oregon's recent softball game, you have to watch the ESPN video over the fold.  

It's a fabulous story about a college softball game in which Sara Tucholsky hit a 3 run homer... her first home run of the season.  In her excitement, she missed tagging first base.  She turned around to tag it properly, and tore her ACL as her foot was planted and didn't pivot with her body.  She then crawled to first base.  What happened next, is an amazing story of sportsmanship.  The opposition asked if they could help.

I am sorry I was late to this discussion, but the October edition of Parenting magazine included a synopsis of this debate: “Should booing be banned at kids’ sports events?”

I could not find it online, but the magazine listed that the grand majority of its readers -- 84 percent -- said “yes.” Here are a couple reasons why parents argued against booing:

”We’re supposed to be role models, showing kids things like compassion, sportsmanship, and kindness. They’ll get enough booing in life. Why would anyone want them to feel that heartache so young?”

--Sheryl Richter
Adair, IA

“The purpose of these events is to foster a love of activity and teach skills -- including how to win or lose gracefully. Is there booing at recitals? Sports shouldn’t be different.”

--Kelly McElwain
Davidsville, PA

Representing those against a zero booing policy are the following:

We seem to be getting heavy into the gender and feminism issues lately, which is great. I love it. I’m also an Old Skool Feminist (my photo with Gloria Steinem is a prized possession), so take the former with the latter.

I’m also a bit of a tennis freak – can’t play it worth a damn, never got past tryouts at for the school team,  but I do watch it on TV, or at least pay attention to the tournaments, particularly the women’s tournaments. As such, it was with special pleasure that I read about the induction of Althea Gibson into the US Open’s Court of Champions.

Gibson, who died in 2003, was the first African-American woman to win both Wimbledon and the US Open between 1957 and 1958.

It's probably a sign that my first thought for a title for this article was "Teaching Our Daughters about Feminism." Our daughters AND our sons need to understand about the history of feminism, and the history of discrimination in general, so they can see where we've come from and where we're going.

I was driving home from the YearlyKos fundraiser, tuning into KQED, and I was treated to an interview with Billie Jean King from an event at Stanford, talking about Title IX. My first thought was disappointment, oh, a sports interview, not what I'm in the mood for. Actually a curious reaction, given that I'm pretty aware of Title IX and how much it changed the university experience for women (including myself).

When I took my daughter to swimming class this week, the woman sitting next to me told me about her daughter.  Her daughter was in a softball game.  She lunged at a runner to touch her with the ball.  The runner ducked, and her daughter fell awkwardly.  When she got up, her mother thought she was standing oddly, but thought she imagined it when the child continued with the game.  At the end of the game, she discovered that her daughter's ankle was broken.   The adrenal was so strong that she didn't begin to feel it until the game was over.  The ankle was so swollen that they couldn't even cast it.  They put a boot on it and waited for the swelling to go down.

Follow me to the flip, to hear about her attempts to get her daughter's broken leg treated...