The river sure looks cool in the wee hours of morning. If it weren’t for soccer, I’d never have known.
One practice a week. Then one “game” that is half practice, half mini-game. 2-3 hours a week. PERFECT.
Or so I thought. My lollipop and rainbows perspective of kids sports is that it should all be high-fives and camaraderie. But in reality, we’ve had to have serious talks about it. Some of the kids (and coaches, coaches of 4, 5, and 6 year old kids to be specific) are actually out for blood. I’ll hold the tirade on why adults are encouraging 4, 5, and 6 year olds to attack each other in the hopes that this is just one or two isolated douchebags. But the fact is that kids pick up on that negative influence, my kid included.
It was horrible. This is my sweet kid who can’t pass by a baby without making goo-goo faces.
I swallowed my thoughts on how, maybe, kids under the age of 10 should only do dance and art and music and swimming and gymnastics. Things where competitiveness is really about doing their best, not about beating another team. Maybe there is something to learn from playing in a team, but it certainly isn’t about winning, and I’m starting to feel like that sort of experience doesn’t exist.
Paul talked me down from the ledge with thoughts that we could make this a teaching moment. Okay. Fine. So we’ve had talks about sportsmanship and the oh-so-not-important scoring/winning thing which is lame. Seriously, people. Winning anything in team sports at age 5 is lame. Let’s be real here. It’s about not letting down your team and being a good athlete!
We deliver all of this in the most enthusiastic voices. And deliver our disappointment at those who feel that taking out the other team by knocking them down, or talking trash, or seeing them as anything less than colleagues and friends and other jovial kids in the most decrepit, vile voices. Bah on them, we say! Up with peace, love, and happiness on the soccer field!
That’s the spirit!
And then I have to bite my tongue and swallow my questioning thoughts. I have to secretly thank all that is good and right in the world that he hasn’t come around to question us about all this sportsman-like play stuff.  That his brain hasn’t circled back and recognized the discrepancies between doing and saying.
Because Will was there when we went so crazy with joy every time Brett Favre gazed up at the roof of the Superdome when someone planted his behind to the turf. Make no mistake, it was awesome. Every. Darn. Time. AND HARDER EVEN! YEAH!
Sure, we can argue it’s different for a million reasons. (And besides, it isn’t about football, anyway. I actually am NOT a fan of football, I things considered.) But still.
We’re still hypocrites.
So if the question comes, I’m just glad Paul will be around to answer it. Because me?  I’ve got nuthin’.
PS: Alejna has the most recent update about the Just Posts Best of 2009. Just don’t call them gerbils.
shokufeh | 03-Mar-10 at 11:22 am | Permalink
Have you all read “Shawn Sheep: The Soccer Star?” It’s a great book about sportsmanship and teamwork. I think the library has it.
We made the mistake of constantly making things contests to try to speed MrMan out the door in the morning or in it in the evening. Ack. So now we’re trying to tone that down, while still moving along. Fail.
kayak woman | 05-Mar-10 at 4:45 pm | Permalink
Makes me think of when I was a kid in the 60s and we organized our own games, without parental intervention. Kickball in the street. Baseball in an empty lot or over at the schoolyard. Not sure whether life was simpler back then or not.
Lucy | 07-Mar-10 at 8:54 am | Permalink
Oh, you poor thing. You are only beginning. My children are not children, I have a 21yr. old and 18yr. old and have lived through sports and I am not into sports. My daughter LOVES sports and plays basketball but before she devoted herself to basketball she played a variety of sports including soccer, I have seen it all. My son, God love him, sucked at sports and it was very painful for him as a boy, especially at a Catholic school, we ended up switching him to public and he thrived at the public school. In fourth grade he had a coach pass out the STATS in baseball and all the kids made fun of him because he was the only player not to have hit the ball, can you imagine? Fourth grade, I was livid. Passing out STATS in fourth grade. I was told by my husband to keep my mouth shut and so it went on and on. I agree under 10 do we really need STATS, Scores and so on. I think middle school and High School is fine for all the competition and playing to win but grade school???
I feel for you and I am so glad it is all over, I do not miss that part of our lives, I just couldn’t stand all that parent competitive bull, it drove me bonkers.
Good Luck!
Charlotte | 07-Mar-10 at 11:49 am | Permalink
That river shot is spectacular!