Cohen: Unable to sit still with excitement while he waits for his soccer trophy
Emerson: A spark of mischief behind those blue eyes
I am a bad soccer Mum. I could not wait until the last day of the season. I was counting down the minutes yesterday until it wrapped up and we need never return. We have struggled though an entire season of soccer with Cohen and it is finally over. Hoo-ray!
I wasn't always a bad soccer Mum. I'm all for children playing team sports. Cohen participated in weekly soccer skills sessions last year and loved it. I ran around the field with him when he first started and was too nervous to leave my side. I jumped over obstacles and cheered him on at the sidelines to encourage him. At his request we enrolled him again this year. However, each Friday evening this past season he has whinged and complained that he didn't want to go the next morning. Once there, he'd muck around for the first half of the session before getting in to it and enjoying it, then saying he couldn't wait until next week. The next week he wouldn't want to go again. Thus began the tedium and frustration that lasted the entire season. We offered gentle encouragement. We let him sit out several weeks. We discussed why he didn't want to go. We didn't pressure him. We didn't want to push him, but were mindful of the financial investment we'd made. Yesterday he didn't want to go as usual, until we mentioned that it was the last session and he would be getting a trophy. He swiftly changed his mind.
As we walked back to the car afterwards I felt immense relief that we would no longer have to negotiate this particular weekly hurdle. Cohen, on the other hand, pronounced that he had had a wonderful time and "could not wait to come back again next week and get another trophy."
I wasn't always a bad soccer Mum. I'm all for children playing team sports. Cohen participated in weekly soccer skills sessions last year and loved it. I ran around the field with him when he first started and was too nervous to leave my side. I jumped over obstacles and cheered him on at the sidelines to encourage him. At his request we enrolled him again this year. However, each Friday evening this past season he has whinged and complained that he didn't want to go the next morning. Once there, he'd muck around for the first half of the session before getting in to it and enjoying it, then saying he couldn't wait until next week. The next week he wouldn't want to go again. Thus began the tedium and frustration that lasted the entire season. We offered gentle encouragement. We let him sit out several weeks. We discussed why he didn't want to go. We didn't pressure him. We didn't want to push him, but were mindful of the financial investment we'd made. Yesterday he didn't want to go as usual, until we mentioned that it was the last session and he would be getting a trophy. He swiftly changed his mind.
As we walked back to the car afterwards I felt immense relief that we would no longer have to negotiate this particular weekly hurdle. Cohen, on the other hand, pronounced that he had had a wonderful time and "could not wait to come back again next week and get another trophy."
