To bolster my daughter's playing, my husband thought it would be great to get to the field a little early to kick the ball around with our daughter and give her some pointers. While they were doing this, one of her teammates came over to join them. My husband was less than thrilled as he had a list of things he wanted to work on with our daughter. I thought this would be a great opportunity for my daughter to bond with a kid on the team and build some goodwill points.
They were having a blast together, and my husband was still able to make his drills work, more or less. Everything seemed to go well until this boy said to my daughter, "Your grandpa is doing a good job being goalie!" I laughed my ass off because the kid thought my husband was my daughter's grandfather instead of father. Until it occurred to me that the kid probably thought I was my daughter's grandmother. Then his comment wasn't as funny to me!
The drills seemed to help my daughter's playing a bit! She scored a couple of goals during the drills. We have two more Sundays left in this session. I'm thinking we're done with this league. It was fun while it lasted, but it doesn't seem to be fitting our daughter's needs anymore.
One weird thing that has been happening are the parents that yell at the boy whom I suspect is on the spectrum. They get angry about his inability to focus on the game. so they threaten to take away his video games if he is not focusing on the game more. Yeah. That should help his ability to focus!
So, our next item on our agenda is to find another sport or league for our daughter to participate in! Wish us luck!
I think it is so sad that the kids who genuinely just want to be a part of a team and have fun are ridiculed and made to feel inferior because they don't have the top skills. It's sad because it keeps an awful lot of kids away from playing sports (especially girls) who just want to have a good time. My kids would love to be part of a team but they aren't that great at playing and haven't been doing it since they were 3... but they would never make it on the teams we have here because it's all so high school and college oriented. If you can't play, they don't want you.
ReplyDeleteI remember when somebody on the subway asked me if I was Ian's grandmother. At first I was insulted, but then I remembered that there are quite a few girls getting pregnant and having babies while still in high school. When the typical grandmother for these types is 35 years old, I'm just thankful that they didn't ask if I was the great grandmother.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
ReplyDeleteI hate when parents yell at their kids during a sport :/
All my three kids started to play soccer at a very young age, and they love it. It's pretty much the only sport that they play. I have witnessed too many of these screaming parents too, and it's not pleasant for others to hear either.
ReplyDeleteThe part about being a grandma gave me a chuckle :-)
Poor kid... (The little boy)
ReplyDeleteAnd lucky girl!! It's really great that you can tell when an activity just isn't working anymore.
Also, about the grandfather thing? It's *known* that guys typically date women much younger than them, so I'll BET they totally didn't think that of you! ;)
PS. As a side note, my dad remarried when I was about 19. I went with him to buy the clothes he would wear for the wedding and the people in the store mistook me for his fiancee... **gags**