Our family has watched a lot of Olympics this winter break, and while Craig encourages the girls to simply marvel at the sheer athletic prowess, I attempt to plug in all sorts of parenting gems about the importance of persistence, learning how to lose graciously, what it means to be a good teammate, etc. We've had some great moments to discuss "fairness" -- what it means (is it fair to have to ski on a slower course, because weather changes?), how it gets applied (are the judges fair? who's to say?), and how to make sense of an existential lack of fairness in the universe (is it fair to train for your whole life and miss a medal by almost-nothing)? (As usual, I leave these conversations grateful for Billy and the examples being set in modern day P.E.) ... We have stumbled on an issue that are clear about -- not letting women compete in ski jumping seems clearly unfair!).
For more info, read this article by NOW and watch this MSNBC video
