I have a confession.
My 6 year old son has never played an organized sport.
To clarify, we did let him try Upward basketball when he was 4. After two disastrous, tear-soaked practices we called it quits. PB and I figured it wasn't worth stressing him out since given our lack of athletic prowess there's not much of a chance either of our kids is going to college on an athletic scholarship.
And since he did more crying than playing during those two practices, I still feel honest in reporting that my son has never played an organized sport.
Doc's been kind of antsy lately so PB and I thought it might be time to give the sports thing another go. We're thinking he might enjoy playing a sport with other kids.
Or he might not. Who knows?
So I headed to the Y to get some information on T-ball. I've never played T-ball and frankly it seems like a silly "sport" to me, but that's what the Y is offering right now so T-ball it is. I asked the nice lady at the membership desk for dates and prices and in return received the obligatory pitch for membership.
As we discussed all the wonderful ways my family would benefit from membership she asked about my kids and what other sports my son has played.
Um, none. (I didn't think this was the time to go into our Upward experience.)
None? Imagine a nicely coiffed lady with her mouth gaping open at this point.
Well, sure because sports would take away from his paste eating time. I explained instead that we prefer letting him climb trees and ride his bike. "You know, kids stuff?" I asked with a smile.
She smiled and nodded her head like perhaps she wouldn't report me to the state right away.
Then I went in for the kill and told her that we have a very flexible schedule since we homeschool.
I'm now in their permanent file with "HOME SCHOOL" scrawled across my contact information card.
Oh, that poor, poor boy.
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3 comments:
oh my gosh... how backwards was SHE?! funny description!
I know money can be a factor in finding that "outlet" with boys (or girls for that matter!) One of my sons did good with whatever sport, he is just that kind of active, would/could play anything. The other son... Rod was their baseball coach for a while and he'd come home just shaking his head...one son doing great, one son was Ferdinand! (mind you, we laughed WITH him about it)... he'd be out in the field paying attention to the flowers, bees, and butterflies... not the game! it was frustratingly funny...it wasn't that he couldn't, he just didn't care! BUT when he tried martial arts, that son found his outlet for a few years. He was good at it and he liked it. He hasn't stayed with it during his teen years but that didn't matter... it was good for him for those years.
We didn't put our first son into sports until he was almost 8. It was fencing. He only lasted until he was 10. Need a sword?
We put my second son into soccer when he was 5 because I needed somewhere large for him to run off the excessive energy other than atop my nerves. He excelled like nobody's business.
We put my third son into soccer when he was 6 because we were always at the field anyway.
However, sports began to consume our life so we declared an all spring season moratorium. They're now back to riding bikes and climbing trees. The sports of life!
All 3 of my boys try sports. Ethan always wants to play whatever is older brothers are, but he gets so frustrated at any sport he has tried. With basketball, he doesn't like the other kids grabbing his arm when they are guarding him. Soccer should be interesting next month.
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