Soccer Mom

I live in the suburbs….. check. I drive a minivan….check. I now have school age children that I drive around in said mini van to various sporting events…check. Yep, by definition it looks like I’m officially a soccer mom. Oh dear.

This kid’s sports stuff is new for us. Our first child was a very girly girl who had no interest, in fact showed mostly disdain for anything involving a team and a ball. Now we have two boys and things are very different. We signed the boys up for indoor pee-wee soccer this winter, and by that I mean, we signed ourselves up to be wildly entertained twice a week. Any of you who have kids that play or who have played pee-wee soccer know exactly what I’m talking about… it’s hilarious!

I have to say though, between game one and game ten I saw some real improvement. I can’t say that I saw any future David Beckhams on the team, but by the last game it seemed like most of the kids somewhat understood what they were supposed to be doing. That last game could have actually passed as real soccer… almost.

My boys have loved playing. Okay, I should say Jeffrey loved it, Jonathan ran a little hot and cold about it (it turns out he’s not a big fan of running), but over all I think they both enjoyed themselves. They were totally bummed after they finished their last game and are already begging us to sign them up for outdoor soccer.

I think the whole family has been converted, even Mary Kate has decided she might want to play a little soccer or some other sport that involves a team and a ball. I have a funny feeling that in the future I may be spending considerable amounts of time watching my kids from the bleachers.

FYI… our team didn’t win a single game. In fact I think there were only about 10 points scored the whole season, 9 out of those 10 being scored by the same kid, but as one little girl on the team said to Mike after he told them to go out and try really hard to score a goal, ”Hey coach… um…it doesn’t matter if we win or lose… it only matters if we have fun.” Well said Ally. She should have repeated that to some of the other soccer parents in the bleachers. Good grief!

There were two girls on the team, Ally and Savannah. They proved that soccer is most certainly for girls too. Ally (in the glasses) was especially concerned about whether or not her fans were cheering for her. She would run past the bleachers every so often yelling, “Are you remembering to cheer for me?”

Here’s my Jeffrey in a blur of action….

… and my Jonathan (red shorts) in a rare and brief blur of action….

I think I like being a soccer mom.