Monday, September 21, 2009

Succer

Hi everyone. It’s good to be “back.” I’m sorry I had to use the “life permitting” clause on Friday.

Nope, the title of today’s post is not a misspelling. It’s a new word I created that’s an amalgam of the words “soccer” and “sucker.”

Fall soccer season has caused us enough of a headache so far that we now own some stock in Excedrine Migraine.

My guess is that if you heard it, many would recognize the tune “La donne e mobile” from Verdi’s opera Rigoletto. The Italian translates to “Woman is fickle.”

If I wrote a song about Fall Soccer, it would be called:
“Big Brother’s Soccer Participation e mobile.”

The chorus would go something like “I don’t want to go to soccer. Well, yeah I do. No, I don’t want to play. Can you get my ball? Soccer is a bad word. I love soccer. Soccer, NO!”

It’s a minute-to-minute decision about what’s going to happen, although nap or no-nap status makes a big difference.

Initially we thought his frustration about soccer came from improperly fitting equipment, but of course life is never that simple.

We’ve seen the gamut of running his heart out and scoring goals to having to be dragged to the car (NOT literally) to go, and everything in between.

Last Thursday took the cake. Mom-E took a half-day from work to be able to pick him up in the early afternoon for soccer. He hadn’t napped. Dad-E fought traffic for about a half-hour to get to the game. Even Grampap-E made the journey to watch him play.

We spent the entire pre-game sitting on a spectator’s bench pouting.

Then I had to go get his ball (while he continued to pout on the bench).

Then with massive coaxing we got him to stand on the sidelines NEAR his team.

When he finally got “in” to the game, he stood on the sideline and REFUSED to move. I mean, wouldn’t even turn around when everyone else went flying in the opposite direction.

So, at that point, full of embarrassment, we picked him up and left.

As upset as I was (soccer pretty much had to “take a number” behind my other frustrations that day), I was of course reminded by MY Dad-E that when I was about 5 or 6, I refused to play at a Y soccer game because I was assigned to play goalie, and apparently I didn’t want to play goalie.

I'd never do that. No, not me.

Hmm…Suddenly it was hard to get too upset, and I was beginning to feel like a “pot” talking to ”kettle” Big Brother.

As much as we’d like to quit, I think we’re stuck going because:
1. We don’t want to teach him to quit, and
2. If we did, it’d just teach him that if he throws a big enough fit he’ll get his way.

Oh, to be strong-willed and 4 again.

At least if this keeps up, we’ll have a little less worry about peer-pressure-related things when he gets older.

Have a good week,
Busy-Dad-E

4 comments:

  1. Where on earth is the video camera during these episodes. Not only could I enjoy the footage, you could show it at his wedding!

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  2. I'm with WM: video would be great! :)

    I know it's frustrating, but you're doing the right thing by not letting him quit! He'll learn to participate. Just one of those life lesson-things.

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  3. Kids are too funny....one minute they love it and then next they just want out. This phase will hopefully past. I hope he enjoys it this week and creates as I like to say "less embarrassing episodes" for both mom and dad. Rosi

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  4. Ah, this reminds me when the youngest wanted, wanted, wanted to be a cheerleader and then called me crying because she was sick with a headache. The girls were too loud.

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