How the Fun Won

I watched the little kids of all backgrounds run and walk past the 1K finish line with parents and friends running along with them and cheering them on. Most of the children's faces, boys and girls alike, had smiles beaming equally in between gulping breaths. It looked like they were having fun, which was the point of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Fun Run, and why we wanted to do the 5K fun run at the same event. 

This was the culmination of both our daughters' physical fitness testing going on at their respective grade and middle schools. The culmination of repeated outcries of how tired they were having to practice running a mile, and having to do pushups and sit ups and more. 

Even though our girls may complain about having to do the physical fitness tests, they do enjoy being active and the challenges these tests bring. My wife Amy and I are very active and exercise nearly every day, and the girls see that and model it. They may not want to go on a 2-hour hike with us, but they are always blown away when we remind them of walking 8+ miles a day when we're at Disneyland. That's a mind-bender for them. And us. Plus, both Bea and Bryce have played recreational soccer for years and loved it. Bea got her first taste of competitive soccer in middle school, and while it stressed her out more than she liked, she did well and enjoyed playing. Bryce will try out once she starts middle school in the fall. 

Back to physical fitness, our oldest Beatrice always likes to beat her 1-mile personal best, and if she doesn't, she's bummed about it. The pushups are tough for both girls; they've always been tough for Amy and me, too. Maybe some of you can do 20+ pushups at any one time, but it ain't easy for the rest of us.

But what I loved hearing was when Bea and some of her friends protested that they had to do fewer exercises than the boys did, like pushups. Implying of course that girls can't do the same number of exercises due to being weaker and less adept than the boys. Yes, she still struggled to do them during the testing, but I've seen boys and men who couldn't do one with the knees on the ground, which by the way is called a girl pushup, a long-time stereotypical offensive term. Same differential with running the mile too, and when many boys couldn't even finish the mile, our girls did. 

There's biological truth to the genetic chains each sex has been shackled by for millions of years, but today, women really can do anything a man can do. They're just not given their due, and they get paid less. Still. We hope that gender equity normalizes for our daughters, but it's going to be awhile most likely. They did pass their physical fitness tests, though, so that's a win. 

In the meantime, we'll work and play hard as a family and support each other along the way. We finished the fun run together, running a little and walking a lot along the way. There were other families of all backgrounds who ran the entire way, and a few others, boys and girls alike, who were really in it to win it. Competitive living between the sexes is here to stay, but we'll celebrate how the fun won every day.