So Little had her first taste of team sports today. We give our kids a choice of sports that they would be interested in trying out for a season. Big brother is doing wrestling. Big sister chose basketball. And of course the little one wanted to do something all on her own, so she chose soccer.
Being the littlest, we went through our sports equipment to find out if any of her brother’s or sister’s soccer things were still in good enough shape to be used.
Shoes – check!
Shin guards – check!
Ball – Yes, but not the size we needed, so a bit of Amazon shopping was in order.
Of course our fashionista had a thing or two to say about socks, but thanks to a fellow soccer mama, we found that those, too, could be found on Amazon. All that was left (besides her jersey that would be supplied by the league), was her shorts. Thankfully, this legging queen did not argue too much when we held up the black sports shorts she’d avoided most of her life.
The girl was set.
It had been more than a few years since our last stint on the soccer field – and with the players at such a young age. I’d forgotten how cute the mob mentality was. There was literally a mob of kids chasing the ball around the field. So cute!
I watched the kids have a blast in the high noon Hawaiian sun, meeting their teammates, practicing some drills, and scrimmaging another team. The fun was a bit short lived as one by one, they headed towards the sidelines with tears streaming down their faces. Someone got kicked. Someone tripped and hurt a knee. For the most part, they were over it at the 45 minute mark.
But then it was time for the team tunnel. The kids perked right up and their sweaty, smiling faces were worth spending the hottest part of the day on the open field.
I won’t get into my feelings about team snacks or end of the game medals and how it feeds into our generation of comparisons and entitlement.
For now, I’ll bask in the fact that my girl had fun playing her heart out on the field, didn’t cry, and didn’t punch anyone else out either. ?
