Soccer Together
My 6 year old daughter E and 4 year old son C used to play soccer together. It was a silly training session mostly filled with games. They loved the time together and the coach that runs the sessions is so great with kids. It’s also a great time for me to stand on the side and get some exercise. I bring exercise bands and do some lunges or arm workouts while taking in all the soccer action (yes, I am that crazy dad on the sidelines doing that…need to get in my exercise somehow!).
When things got more serious with trainings, my kids got split up by gender and age. At that time, E was more into dance and we stopped her soccer sessions a little over a year ago. She sometimes misses it, but is happy with dance. C also started to like soccer much less because it was an adjustment for him. He didn’t have his big sister around and things got very serious where it was a lot of scrimmaging, less games, and he was playing with much older boys. His confidence was slumping and the fun started to get sucked out of soccer for him even though he still loved the game itself.
My wife and I had lots of talks about stopping soccer for C and we don’t want to push our kids to do things they don’t want to do. It’s one thing to show persistence and grind through things. It’s another thing to truly hate something and needing a change. I think we were approaching the latter with C and the soccer trainings. They are so young that it’s important to just have fun and try new things if something isn’t working out. As long as they are physically active, I don’t care what they do (except for swimming, they have to do it to learn since it’s such an important life skill!).
We had already paid for the summer soccer session since it carried over from the spring when C fractured his foot. We told him that after this summer session, he could take a break from soccer and do something else. He agreed and during the first session of the summer, my wife had to do volunteer work at the garden. I hauled E, C, and their 1 year old brother L to soccer and was surprised to see a wider age range than I expected. There were also girls mixed with boys! I was surprised because it was labeled as a boys only training session with much older boys, but the coach changed it up for the summer.
The coach recognizes E immediately and asks her to jump in. C was so excited and they proceed to have the time of their life playing soccer together again! It was so awesome to see them get after it and just be happy kids. I was wrangling L and was trying to keep him awake so he didn’t nap outside of the crib, but caught most of the session. C even scored a crazy goal on a move where he stopped and switched directions quickly. He chopped his foot down and shook the defender to score. It was great and somehow I caught that on film with L dangling from my arms.
At the end of the session, the parents got to play against the kids and we tried our best. The kids won, L was sleeping in my arms (doh!), and we made the trek home together. My kids were all happy and resting in the car, full sweat and all. Although I had to juggle three kids, it turned out really well and I’m happy things came together the way that it did. Since the genders and ages were mixed, we signed E up for the rest of the summer so she could play soccer together with C. One last hurrah for them!
