The Far Goal

My 5 year old son C plays a lot of soccer. he is part of two separate leagues and also play soccer at home quite a bit. He even has broken a thing or two in the house which is to be expected. Safe to say, he loves soccer.

During one of his weekend leagues, C was really working hard during a hot day. They usually play some games in the beginning and then progress to scrimmaging. Since it was so hot, they didn’t end up scrimmaging and just played more games since it is a bit easier on the little kids. The coach didn’t want them to overheat.

After the session was over, the kids usually helped the coach cleanup. After most of the things were cleaned up, I saw goal really far away off in the distance. I asked C to grab it and wanted to see what his response was.

He immediately agreed and ran off. I was really happy about his attitude since he wanted to continue working hard and help clean up. It’s also good that after retiring session, he still had the willpower to go do that.

C dragged the goal all the way back and put it in the pile. I made sure to tell him that I was proud of him for doing that and also hoped he was proud of himself. It’s not easy to go the extra mile after a hot and long soccer session, but he did it without question. I also pointed out that this is how you get better and better - making these small choices to push yourself. He agreed and now we just have to work on carrying the same attitude off the pitch and at home!