play ball

For the first 14 years of my parenting career my kids had zero interest in any kind of team sport. They appeared to be only drawn to solitary sports like gymnastics and horse back riding or artistic pursuits like cartooning class and pottery with a fair smattering of life skills clubs like sewing and cooking thrown in for good measure. Their lack of desire to play soccer, for example, concerned me zero percent. I, myself, never played an organized sport of any description and I turned out pretty okay. My husband dabbled in hockey as a tyke and played baseball until his late teens, but the kids non-interest in this area didn't seem to concern him either. To be honest, I think he was just happy they didn't ask to play soccer. Sitting on the side line of the soccer field was not his jam, no offense to any soccer loving folks out there. It's just there is usually no trees, which means no shade and he ain't into that.

We have been known to take in a Jays game or 162 and our youngest had silently started watching along with us in the living room. More importantly she started asking a lot of questions about how the game worked and why plays and calls happened the way they did. My husband was thrilled to share his baseball "expertise" with her along with a lot of double bubble. She talked about perhaps playing baseball for a year or two before she finally took the plunge. She was very concerned about getting hit with a pitch, which actually happened at her very first game and it was totally fine. She's taken many more pitches like a seasoned pro since that time and they have all been fine. Even the last one, that you could tell stung. A lot, but no way was going to let it show. Bit back the tears, took her bag, and kept her eye on second.

My major concern with the kids playing organized sports, were the other parents. Not all of them of course. You know the ones I am talking about. "The sports parents". The ones that yell, that are critical and just make it not fun. I am not about that life. First off, they are 12. This is not the MLB and it is not game seven in the world series. Also my very firm belief is people do more, do it better and enjoy themselves when they feel appreciated and supported. A person needs to hear 5 positive comments for every negative comment and that's not my opinion, that's science. So I was concerned. My husband had spent his teen years and beyond working at our local hockey arena, so he has more than his fair share of "Sports Parents" stories.

For the past two summers our youngest has been playing with, largely, the same group of girls. Many of the families are interconnected in a variety of ways, so our family came in as outsiders, so to speak. These girls have been very welcoming to our daughter, several weeks ago, after what she felt to be a rough outing for her personally one of her teammates was there in a flash with an arm around her shoulder and some words of encouragement. It touched this sappy Mama's soul for sure.

As for my own personal concerns, well I am not sure if we just got super lucky or this is the way of the future, but the team parents have made this so much fun for us and I wanted to thank them for that. For cheering on all the kids on the team. For encouraging all the kids when they are struggling at a game. For celebrating the big moments with them and for always just keeping it on the positive side. It has been an absolute treat to watch the girls grow and improve together and to cheer with all of you from the bleachers.