My dream of becoming a soccer mom!

Let me start off with the fact, I have always wanted to be a soccer mom. Even before having children, I remember going to parks when seeing moms (and dads) with their little children playing soccer and they would set up their chairs and coolers and cheer them on so happily.  To me that was the quintessential family life.  We have always been an active family so getting the children involved in sports was a no brainer.  We had our middle child try flag football while our youngest we thought would be a soccer star.  Here was the introduction into sports.  Going to the practices and meeting new families, it was all great until the first game. I remember going to Matthews’s football game and being excited to just see him play.  He was probably no more than seven or eight at the time so it was still cute to watch.  So I thought. These parents set up tents, had coolers and chairs and food while we came with nothing but our beach chairs.  As the game progressed, it got so heated with the parents “coaching” their sons on the side lines, I thought am I missing something? It’s a flag football game.  I didn’t remember seeing ESPN filming the game or Urban Meyer from Florida there scouting. Need-less-to-say, Matthew did not return to flag football. 

Enter my dream of becoming a soccer mom. We had gone to the practices for Maria who was five or six and she just loved it. She ran down the field in practices kicking the ball with such determination I knew she had found her sport.  The first game was upon us. Not being fooled this time, we came with our chairs and coolers. We set up our “spot” right in the middle of the other parents.  The game begins and Maria did not start at first, which was fine by us. The parents began screaming for a goal and thankfully we got one. Whew. Then Maria goes in. We were beaming with pride. She looked adorable with her little pony tails and uniform.  Maybe a bit too cute. She got on the field and just stood there. Not moving one bit. My heart stopped as one of the parents just looked at me and said “what’s wrong with your daughter??” I yelled at Maria to move, go for the ball. She calmly said “I don’t want to mess up my hair.” She watched as the ball just landed in front of her and she wasn’t going to kick it or run anywhere. The parents started to get in a frenzy at this point and I begged the coach to take her out! Maria was determined to stay out there (which now, I am convinced that she just wanted people to see how cute she looked.) She even started to “chat” with another player on the field during the game. Oh Lord, make this end already.  Thankfully she was taken out and sure enough, she thought she did great.  We lasted one season, barely but that was the introduction to becoming the parent of a child in sports, the good, bad and the ugly. Why can’t parents just keep their mouths shut! Next blog, the new water aerobic instructor in town. Ton o’ blessings to ya until next time.