From the tens
of thousands
of e-mails I have received
over the last six
years [now 14], from my conversations with mothers all across the country, including the mothers
of many Olympic athletes, I believe that, first, and foremost, the vast majority
of mothers (and many fathers,
of course) just want to make youth sports fun again, to know that everything
possible is being done to protect their children from injury and abuse and given a chance to play until they graduate high
school; that if it is no longer safe for our children to learn baseball or soccer on their own on the neighborhood sandlot, the organized sports program in which we enroll our child - the «village» - will protect them and keep them safe while they are entrusted to their care.
As much as you want to anticipate all the
possible expenses that you will incur
over the
course of a 2 -
year, 4 -
year or graduate
school program, there are still some things that you can not foresee.