Soccer

I think I mentioned in passing that Amanda is in soccer and hates it.  Let me back up a little.  So, over the summer we were on the way to the airport so so so early in the morning and I remembered that signups for flag football were that day and started at 6 a.m.  Because there are so few flag football teams, all these crazy people let their 10 year olds and younger play tackle, you pretty much have to sign up right when registration opens if you want to get a good coach.  Andy's football season last year was so miserable that I was not going to let that happen again. so as we were driving to the airport I was getting him registered on the iPad (I so love modern technology).  Charlie told me without much prior discussion that he thought we needed to sign Amanda up for soccer, so I did.  We didn't even ask her if she wanted to play.  The third kid gets screwed all the time.

Anyway, a week or two before it started we told her she was playing soccer.  She was not happy.  She did not want to play soccer, she wanted to do ballet or gymnastics or anything other than soccer.  Charlie decided that he would be the assistant coach since he also was the assistant when Sarah played, and came home from the coaches meeting to inform me that Amanda was the only girl on an otherwise all boy team.  Great, that would make her love soccer so much more.

The first day she actually did great.  I bought her a couple cute little soccer outfits from target with running shorts and quick dry shirts and she totally looked the part.  Andy, Sarah and I were there to watch and cheer her on and Charlie was on the field with her coaching the kids.  She did great until the scrimmage when all the 3-5 year old boys started chasing each other around the field.  Then she lost her confidence and decided that she sucks.  Of course she sucks, they all suck.  But I couldn't tell her that.  There must be something in my kids' DNA that prevents them from doing anything that they aren't good at because I was amazed that even at four years old she didn't want to do something because she didn't think she was good at it.  We tried to explain that nobody is good when they first do something and you have to try and practice and get better, but she wasn't buying it.

The soccer here is a little different because you play games but they are with your own team.  It's almost like a soccer class instead of a soccer team.  They have practice and then they scrimmage each other, and although there are other teams playing on other fields they are doing the same thing - only playing against themselves.  At first I thought it was weird, but then I sort of liked it because it really is no pressure and no score and they have time to get comfortable with the kids they are with and they are all so little.

So the second week she cried the whole time and then we missed the next week.  The week after that Charlie was gone and so I promised I would take her to soccer and stay on the field with her at all times.  Luckily the coach had actually asked the parents in an email to do that if their kid wasn't able to stay on the field themselves, so it wasn't a big deal that I was out there with her.  That was the week I realized that her soccer team was starting to resemble a football team.  There were a couple little boys on the team that not only tried to steal the ball from their own teammates, which is pretty normal at that age, but they were actually tacking anybody who got in their way, whether that person was on their team or not.  There was also one little boy who kept picking up the ball and running to the goal, putting the ball in front of the goal and kicking it in.  No matter how many times you told them no hands and no tackling, they kept doing it anyway.  They are only 3-5 year olds, but things like that remind you of what a blank slate you kid is and just how much you need to teach them.  Like not to tackle people.

Last week I had to take Andy to football so Charlie took Amanda to soccer and he said she did much better and participated and even got in the mix and stole the ball from some of the boys.  I don't know if she is going to be a soccer star or if this will be her only season, but I'm excited to get her out there and doing something on her own that is just for her.  It may not be her things, but I really hope she enjoys it no matter how long she plays.  Plus, she is going to love the trophy at the end of the season.