Full circle? Not quite but I almost flew off the road!

      Looking back when I was a kid,  I remember how many times  my mother would say “wait until you have kids.” I never gave it another thought as I would say to myself “I am going to let my kids do whatever they want and never punish them…..etc.” She would  tell me that I don’t listen well or I’m not paying attention. I was. Well, I thought I did. With that said, fast forward thirty years.

      How blessed I feel that my oldest son is now coaching his alumni high school Junior Varsity lacrosse team. Truly, this is where he belongs. Mother-of-the-year here had major doubts. Times I would believe he was too quite, non committed in other aspects of his life so how is it that this is a perfect fit!?!  It is a proud mama moment to watch him at practice command attention and instruct his players. 

      A couple of weeks ago as we were driving down to practice together, I looked over to see him look puzzled. Kind of shaking his head in disbelief. As I was driving, I turned to him and asked if he was ok and what was wrong. OK, picture this. I have my hands on the wheel, looking at him and trying to concentrate on the road and cars ahead of me when he turns and says “I don’t get it.” “What don’t you get,” I replied. “How is it that I tell them (his players) what to do, and they don’t listen.” “What??” I nearly ran off the road. “They don’t listen to you?” (Flashbacks here.) He then says, “I know what I am talking about, and they still don’t listen.” 

    OK, are you getting the big picture here? I wanted to scream, “welcome to parenting!,” but I didn’t. I was a supportive mom and let him go on, albeit a bit longer than I thought when I couldn’t resist saying, “you tell them to do something and they don’t do it, and you get upset.” “Hmmmm…you know what you’re doing and they still don’t listen.” “Hmmmm….I feel for ya.” 

      Now, I could not love my son anymore than I do, but he still was not getting the whole parent=coach analogy here, nor did I explain it to him. I just told him to keep doing what he was doing and “mean what you say, say what you mean.” I am thankful that I did not get into a car accident as my head did hurt from swinging back to see his face when he told me, “they just don’t listen!”  Looking up to heaven I said to myself “OK mom, you were right.” 

                     Patrick at his first home game coaching the first ever Junior Varsity game at his old high school. Another proud momma moment.   Ton o’ blessings to ya until next time.