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In my last article I wrote about keeping promises. More importantly keeping promises to your children. To be honest I can say that I let my kids down with some broken promises. Though I knew it was important to me as a child to have my parents keep their promises, my daughter reinforced my thoughts on the whole keeping your promises thing. Let me quickly share what happened at their last soccer game of the season. I don’t think an overprotective parent would do what I saw this weekend.
The family arrived at the playing field a little early so that the kids could warm up. Baba, (what they call their grandmother) had come to watch her, and their aunt, uncle and cousins were on their way.
My son’s first game started and my son ran around with the other kids; kicking the ball when he had a chance. I watched, cheered and rooted on my son along with his team whenever I wasn’t trying to videotape and take pictures at the same time.
Then out of nowhere my superman hearing kicked in and I hear across the field, “(child’s name) don’t look at me like I am stupid.” I quickly identified the father that was yelling at his 4 or 5 year old child as apparently his child was not performing the way he had hoped. I was stunned that a father could act in such a way with a child that probably learned to wipe their behind a couple of year ago and was apparently suppose to perform at a much higher level. The father became very quiet after that moment. I can only imagine that he realized that other people could hear what he was saying and felt a bit ashamed.
My Daughter’s Competitive Spirit
Moving on, my daughter cracked me up with a couple of things as her game was about to begin. The other team didn’t have enough players so some players from my daughter’s team put on the opposing teams jersey so they could have a game. My daughter was picked to be on the other team and she was not happy about that. She wanted to play for her team and was bummed out. I told her I didn’t care what team she played on, I just wanted to watch her play. Lucky for her the coach had given the opposing team too many players and my daughter was the first to raise her hand and be sent back to her team. She played very well on her first game of the day.
By the second game my brother and sister in-law had arrived with my niece and nephew. While I was watching my daughters game and catching up with my brother in-law I again found one parent acting like a turd. I’m not looking for these parents but they seem to pop out at me for some reason.
The frustrated parents on the side line looked like they were coaching their truly uninterested daughter like it was some professional event. The dad’s arms were flailing around as he pointed to areas of the field he thought his daughter should be. Only yelling her name and pointing over and over again. It was clear his daughter didn’t care about the soccer game nor did she want to be on the field. The girl playing couldn’t have been older than 6 or 7.
I don’t know if I am growing up or not but I just enjoy watching my kids play. Whether they play good or bad, it really doesn’t matter at this age. No one is giving out scholarships to the pre-k soccer kids.
After the game was over the coach quickly handed out participation trophies to the kids. It was a bit anticlimactic but the kids were so happy to get their first trophy for playing sports. My son held on to his even after getting home. He kept asking me if I wanted to watch him put his trophy on his dresser in his room. “Dad, come watch me put my trophy in my room.” Towards the end of the day he settled for putting his trophy on a table in the front room for all to see.
Overprotective Parents Concerns Justified.
That night my daughter said,” Thanks for going to our soccer game.” I explained to her I had no intentions of missing out on their last game. She then brought up how I had promised not to miss the two previous games and again was glad I had made it to the last one. That conversation tugged on my heart knowing how much she is paying attention to what special events I make it to.
Along the same lines my daughter received an award at her school recently and I was unable to make it to the ceremony due to finding out about it on such short notice. My wife made it thank goodness but I could tell it bothered her that I couldn’t make it (She has received this award 3 times and I made it to only one of the ceremonies).
It’s tough being a working dad or mom. We are just trying to do our best.
Until next time,
Andrew
