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8 Fredericksburg Parent and Family • September 2017 letter to the readers PUBLISHER Leigh Anne Van Doren Tabitha & Jamie Nelle's mom EDITOR Chris Jones Quincy, Hayden & Olive's dad BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & MARKETING Heidi DiEugenio, President, HD Solutions Duke & Dane's mom MEDIA & ADVERTISING DIRECTORS Julie Brosnan, twins Chris & Finn's mom Megan Walsh, Mia, Noelle, and Adelaide's mom DESIGN & PRODUCTION Cheryl Carter, President, Carter Creations Alex, Kate & Jackie's mom WEBMASTER Karen Charney Joshua & Spencer's mom SOCIAL MEDIA Brenda Sapanghila Archer, Maddox & Oliver's mom CALENDAR & COOL THINGS TO DO ELETTER Leigha Pecher Jake and Luke's mom EDUCATION ELETTER & EVENTS Debra Caffrey Aidan's mom MARKETING INTERN Claire Van Doren Steve and Kelli's daughter DISRIBUTION INTERN Tabitha Van Doren Tom and Leigh Anne's daughter parent fredericksburg & family Entrepreneur of the Year PROUD FOUNDING MEMBER ADVERTISING PHONE 540-429-3572 EMAIL leighanne@fredericksburgparent.net CALENDAR & SOCIAL MEDIA E-MAIL socialmedia@fredericksburgparent.net EDITORIAL PHONE 540-429-3572 E-MAIL fredparenteditor@gmail.com SNAIL MAIL P.O. Box 7884, Fred'bg, VA 22404 www.fredericksburgparent.net The publishers reserve the right to reject any advertisement, editorial or listing that does not meet the publication's standards. No part of this magazine may be reproduced with out permission. Listing and advertising rates are available upon request. Every effort has been made to assure the accuracy of the information con- tained herein, however, the publisher cannot guarantee such accuracy. Listings and advertisements are sub- ject to typographical errors, ommissions and/or change without notice. For terms and conditions please visit our website at www.fredericksburgparent.net © Copyright 2017 Nurture, Inc. All rights reserved. WRITTEN BY KAREN CHARNEY LIKE facebook.com/ FredericksburgParent SIGN UP www.FredParent.net TWEET facebook.com/ FredericksburgParent PIN www.pinterest.com/ fredparent FOLLOW @fredparentmagazine As September rolls around each year, parents and kids all over the country are sitting down with their calendars, practice schedules and game schedules trying to fi gure out if they can get everyone where they need to be, and if the preschooler will be riding in the car fi ve hours a day driving siblings back and forth to practice. As a family, you need to have serious discussions about which sports everyone will sign up for, and if you are willing for them to play multiple sports at once. There are too many factors that will play into your decision to list here, but some may include homework, music lessons, family obligations, traffi c on I-95, bedtime and your child's personality. In our house, we allowed our boys to play one sport at a time, and most of the time they played the same sport. Our boys are only a year apart, so every other year they were even on the same team, which made driving to practice easier, especially if my Marine husband was deployed at the time. If you are just beginning to dip your toe into the deep waters of youth sports, you may fi nd that your child will play a different sport each season, and that none of them will stick. Maybe they'll turn out to be more of an individual sport enthusiast, enjoy- ing karate, horseback riding or running, or maybe they'll focus on music and not even play a sport later. But those years will not be wasted. It will take sacrifi ce on your part (or on the part of the preschooler riding along to every practice), but allowing your children to play team sports teaches them valuable life lessons they'll use forever, like hard work, how to lose and how to lead. I'll never forget my son's excitement when he realized that all those drills they were doing in peewee football had somehow shaved four minutes off his mile run in the third grade. The perk for mom and dad: You get to WATCH your kids play all of these sports. So buy the team T-shirts, slather on the sunscreen and bring your cowbell to cheer on their teams. Karen Charney's sons are in college now and she still gets to cheer on her younger son who is on Christopher Newport University's Varsity Sailing Team. Sadly, cowbells are discouraged. Kids, Sports and Family Spencer Charney sailing with CNU.