If you’ve ever found yourself on the sidelines on a day like the one pictured above just so you could watch your kid play a sport, this post is for you.
Last fall I wrote about the lessons I’ve learned since becoming a soccer mom. I’m pleased to report that it’s still more fun than I imagined, especially because both of my boys’ teams underwent some kind of crazy growth and transformation in the off-season, and they’re playing really well this Spring. It’s as if they’ve started to really understand the game and trust their teammates.
There’s a problem in this progress, though. I find myself in the totally surprising (to me) position of not wanting to miss a game. And that means our family schedule has been more intense than I really prefer. I found myself getting upset with The Stowaway at The Bear’s game yesterday– his second of the weekend, and The Monkey had one Saturday, too– because she was bored and eating Goldfish and was thirsty. While she was acting perfectly appropriately for a three-year-old whose mother had forgotten to pack snacks and a drink and who had sat through too many games already and was closing in on nap time, I was wrapped up in the intensity of the game and not tending to her needs.
So here’s my question: how do those of you with multiple kids playing multiple sports do it all? Do you go to all the games? Do you and your spouse divide and conquer? Do the siblings come along, too? Do you have a snack/drink/entertainment regime that I can copy?
The thing is, as a family we’ve chosen to not do too many activities. Other than soccer (one practice a week and usually only one game a weekend per kid), the boys each take piano lessons for an hour a week. That’s it.
So what am I missing? Tell me all your secrets.
Good health and great happiness to you!
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Depending on what the activity is we tend to divide and conquer. We have 3 and the 3rd isn’t old enough to get into travel sports yet, so he does a 1/2 hour of swimming lesson and 1 hour of soccer lesson (no games) per week. Otherwise he comes along to the older siblings’ activity (if he can be least destructive – or what would work better for him – he’s very active). In the fall we have gymnastics meets, for big sister, which involve sitting for 3-4 hours, he doesn’t go to those, so he goes with Dad to brother’s soccer game, 1 hour and he can run around the field. Spring is just gymnastics practice, so big sister gets dropped off and picked up after her 4 hours of practice. Big brother does baseball and soccer (soccer is just practice until fall), we try to attend his games, luckily it is a block and half from our house so we trade off and watch an hour or so and then go home, while the other parent goes to watch the game for the 2nd half. It’s a lot of driving to get everything in, sometimes we ask team mates to pick up or drop off.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Viki. You brought back some fond childhood memories from my days as a competitive gymnast. I’m already a bit scared of the day The Stowaway has activities, too– it’ll be a real three ring circus!