Living in New England, most everyone I knew growing up skated - ponds, MDC rinks, etc. Husband's family is a big hockey family, all boys, they all skate and play hockey. It was natural to sign our two girls up fro learn to skate lessons, and I wanted to take them too, so it was all 3 of us on the ice.
At that time, oldest daughter was 7, competing in gymnastics, and the skating was just so she could stand up and move out on a pond without killing herself. Younger daughter was 4, had some issues with a birth defect, and we used skating as therapy.
A few years later, older daughter is not interested in gymnastics anymore. (Bad fall off the beam doing some backhandspring tumbling pass, freaked me out too, and she lost her nerve, made it easy to stop.)
We had one whole month without a big sports bill, and she tried out and made the local youth intro synchro team. Both girls were still taking LTS lessons, completely for recreation. No glimmer of competition, testing, private lessons...
Youth intro, then on to intermediate - wait you need to test moves for that, private lesson time, then a year later she heard about a junior team about an hour away. Multiple private lessons, moves and ice dance testing, practices on school nights that didn't get us home until midnight.
Two trips to Synchro Nationals, a gold medal in moves, some great friends from 3 different states, and a unique-looking college application later, she's hung up her skates and playing rugby at MIT...