Infant Athletes?

Ok,

Looking for thoughts, comments, fits of rage, sarcasm, true honest to goodness opinions on the whole infant athlete/start training them young, phenomenon that seems to be taking over. I mean, I can remember being little and having "that friend" in the neighborhood who could never come over and play, or stay for dinner, or have a sleepover because they had some kind of practice in the morning, or the evening, or the afternoon, or a tournament on Saturday and Sunday. I was 6 and there were kids who were already ubber competitive at sports or dancing or gymnastics. I know that some little kids can be stubborn and demanding, but I find it hard to believe that they really decided at 3, 4, or 5 that they just HAD to be enrolled in an extensive hockey tournament program. BUT...this was the exception, not the rule among my little tiny friends.

Now, however, I feel that more and more parents are on a mission to have their kids grow up super fast (Tom Brady potty training at 6 months?????????) And it has become normal to be discussing what sports programs your kids are going to join while they are still sleeping in their infant car seats. I actually heard one mom say to another mom, "well, if I can get her to the Little Gym at 18 months, this could get her into gymnastics mode early enough that she could compete by 3 and it could really help to get her into a better preschool." Yes, that is EXACTLY what I heard. Now, I know that there are some private schools that may be hard to get into, but training an 18 month old on gymnastics in order to give them a leg up...really. I think I am now terrified to have children. My Gosh, by the time I procreate I will have to have my child writing a novel with one hand, spinning a basketball in the other while on a balance beam, all just to be able to get day care.

I was curious about this, so I started to randomly ask people I know, who have little kids, what their thought was on infant grooming and toddler sports. I was astounded by how many of them said. " well, I was never allowed to play sports as a kid and it hurt my chances of getting scholarships in high school, so I am totally enrolling my kids in 2 or 3 sports and hopefully one of them will stick." Wow. Was not expecting that one. I never played soccer or little league either, I was on a swim team for 13 years and we had no swim team in high school. I guess you can call that grooming gone wrong....Although, even if there was a team..Michael Phelps I was not. But I certainly don't have a burning desire to make my kids play every sport that I never played.

This whole thing is totally confusing to me. Maybe it is a New England thing? Maybe it is an affluence thing? I have no idea...but it scares me a little.