So I decided to try the mom sports life. It seems that everyone has their kids signed up in several sports and it looks like their family is happy and got everything working smoothly. After all, if they can do it, so can I. Right?
I decided to take it slow and only sign up 3 of my 10 kids and that they can only play on the same sport. After asking several moms about my options, I choose flag football. That way my kids won't get hurt very much.
We signed up and had to pay for a registration fee and uniform. The fees weren't too bad, but when you add on another kid it gets pricier.
After signing up I was sent an email about what teams they would play on and what times the practice and games were. Let the scheduling nightmare begin! My 2 boys had practice on opposite nights. Now I had to juggle school homework, cub scouts, and football practice, not to mention the fact that the other kids have activities.
Our first day of practice I realized I might not like the flag football culture. My 8 year old was being a little spacey normal kid and the coach would send him to do laps when he did not respond quickly enough. I was surprised at how little patience this coach had towards this distracted 8 year old. The coach for my 10 year old had 2 coaches. One of them yelled at the kids about how stupid they were while the other one would gently ask retell instructions etc. My concern was that the first coach was not an example of good sportsmanship which I had grilled into my kids. Nevertheless, these were the coaches I had for the season. My guess was that game day would be better.
Our first game day came and I now had to juggle 2 games on a busy Saturday, but I was excited to join the other sports moms. So the crowd lived up to my expectations or cheering for my kids, but I was taken aback from the dads who kept yelling insults at kids or the coaches. I wondered if they would expel one of the dads. I waited that whole hour to see my kids play and they never did. My mom brain assumed that the coaches would have every kids play, but I guess my kid was not good enough to help win the game. I did watch as other kids played the entire game. It seemed so unfair. My son and I had a good discussion afterwards bout team work and coaches. As a parent I was frustrated that I spent the money and time for this sport and yet my kid did not play. I guess this is sport reality and this is what I came to experience.
One other surprise, that nobody mentioned, was the weather. These boys only played when the fields were dry. Really? How often does that happen when the season is from February to May? It seemed to rain every practice and game day like the sky knew when to rain to ruin our fun. By May the Saturdays were packed. I would have 2 boys playing 2 regular games and 2 make up games. That meant on Saturdays we were there all day long! Goodbye free time!
So, I finally made it to the end of the season and through all the emotional roller coasters. How do other families do this? How do they manage more than one sport? I put my toe in the stream of family sports, only to realize that it is a rushing river! I had so much to learn and so much to manage that it exhausted me. We all decided to not do it again for a year and to try a different sport in the hopes that it would suit our family life better.
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