You know you’ve reached middle age when you quit bragging about your children and start bragging about your grandchildren.

I’m happy to have lived long enough to see my granddaughters offered equal opportunities in education as a result of Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972 and other legislations.

The legal gobbledegook means that my six granddaughters have choices I didn’t.

One of these is equal opportunity in sports. Five of the six play soccer and No. 1Ý is a runner.

Why the 1Ý? Because when I married the New Yorker I “inherited” a wonderful 6-year old who is now 21, beating out the original No. 1 by about four years. Strangely enough, my first biological granddaughter informed me that the No. 1 title was now that of my “adopted” granddaughter.

It was a great feeling to have all the grandkids on equal standing. And we did it without legislation!

Although I swam and played softball as a kid, my inspiration for the first was cooling off in Phoenix summers, and for the second was trying to impress my next-door neighbor, a 9-year-old whom I worshipped from afar — until I got my own glove and played shortstop on a neighborhood team on which the few girls were given the least coveted positions on the field.

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I can remember my mom telling me that when she was a young girl, their gym classes involved wearing middy tops over some kind of leg-covering garment and doing calisthenics.

By the time I was in school, the dreaded physical education classes required our donning an absolutely hideous outfit, sort of an extra-large “onesie” with bloomer legs. Gorgeous!

During this past year, my running granddaughter placed fourth in the State of Ohio in the 800-meter event. Her summer was spent training for cross-country and making some money lifeguarding at a country club, where part of their training was in how to handle a drunken club member! (Ah, modern life!)

As captain of her school’s cross-country team, she led the girls to the state finals, the first time in the school’s history that they qualified for state.

This 17-year-old is into Spandex running shorts (because the college girls wear them!) and an equally streamlined top. She keeps in shape by eating very healthily and has even gotten her cheerleading colleagues to do the same.

She is considering nutrition and fitness as a college major.

The kid’s got an award-winning personality, a killer smile and a sensitivity to the feelings of others. She makes good grades, does community service, and gets along with her siblings and parents — surely award-worthy characteristics.

Thanks to the years of building equal opportunity in women’s sports, this young woman is being courted by several good colleges in different states. She was flown down to Florida to check out a track program there, visited several Ohio universities, and was then flown to Michigan for yet another interview where she was treated like royalty.

How lucky I feel to see my granddaughter have a chance for an athletic scholarship — and to do all that she does.

Meanwhile, No. 1, who didn’t concentrate on competitive sports, does rock-climbing, snowboarding and skiing, works out at a gym and enjoys yoga. She also does kickboxing and takes Pilates classes. And she’s not the “athletic” one.

As for their old Bubbie (grandmother), I never connected with the elusive 9-year-old, but went on to enjoy softball for a few years. However, at today’s weight, I think I would make a better base than a baseball player.

I recently went out to breakfast with a friend who is also a proud grandmother. She told of how her 14-year-old grandson competes in the lightest-weight wrestling class. “Sometimes, he actually wrestles with girls!” she said bemusedly.

Oy! Let’s not take equality to ridiculous extremes. How the heck can boys and girls wrestle without grabbing something inappropriate? My friend hopes that a girls’ wrestling team is in the offing. More power to them.

I wish them all fun at their sports and healthy lives, and am so glad that they’ll never have to wear green bloomers!

Niki Reese Eschen can be reached at stiki@verizon.net.