I may have mentioned that we signed the older boys up to play football this fall.
I personally am more fond of them playing soccer; I like the schedule and the level of competition is pretty tame. However, there was a great deal of “football is my FAVORITE game” from one or more individuals this spring so Hubby and I decided to give it a go. The closer we’ve gotten to the season, the more we’re realizing that we’ve gotten in over our heads here.
My post at GNMParents (now Forever Parenting) this week is about concerns over young kids in sports. Then last night I found out that the boys will be practicing 4 nights a week for two hours per night until school starts. From there, they’re going to practice 3 nights a week (still for the 2 hours) and have games on Saturdays. Oh my word! That’s a huge commitment for 9 and 10 year olds. And for the rest of the family. I’m not so sure of the wisdom of that kind of time commitment at this stage of life. Both Hubby and I hesitate to adding once-weekly activities to our schedule. This is huge.
We’ve paid the money and signed the forms, so we’re going to stick with it. If nothing else, there’s plenty to be learned here. But wow. I didn’t think we’d get to this level of sports for 3 or 4 more years. If we’d have understood the requirements I think we would have waved the boys off.
On the other hand, they’ll find out what they’re made of and there won’t be any questions like “What if I had tried football?”. Right?
Boy I hope they don’t get hurt….that we all survive the season without loss of temper….and that we come out on the other side in one piece.
What do you think? Should sports for kids be less intense? More intense? Have your kids been in sports much? What kind of commitment was required, and how did that impact your family?
Earnest Parenting: help for parents of football players.
Image courtesy of a4gpa via Creative Commons license, some rights reserved.
You’re a much braver mom than me.
BTW, I awarded you. Go check out my blog. 🙂
Justin wanted to try it but when I added up the cost of equipment vs soccer…….nah! Oh, there was the points that he cried whenever he got hurt and that in homeschooling he wouldn’t be able to play once he hit middleschool age anyway so I just stuck with the soccer investment. It has paid off. They get exercise and they love it! The time commitment is an issue esp. with my work schedule and hubby in college…but it’s the only thing they do! I’m with you on the “at least we tried it” theory.
We’re in the same boat as you know! 🙂 At this point we are also running with the “Tried it” idea. Since the league is also for kids up to 8th grade I guess I can see why older kids might practice more but still seems like a lot to me. But there are lots of parents included parents where both are working full-time geared up and ready for it. ??? How on earth??? Guess we’ll all survive together!
Before I get to the question at hand…thank you for dropping by my blog yesterday because it helped me find yours! 🙂
My boys are not built for football, thank GAWD! They never showed an interest. Football scares me.
The intensity of sports drives me crazy sometimes. I understand the whole competitive thing but when they are young some have forgotten about the FUN aspect. There should be different leagues for ones that want to pursue that end and for those that just want to have fun.
P.S. I absolutely LOVE your header!!!!
LOL. Michelle, I think complete ignorance was a big factor in there somewhere. And THANK YOU for the award! Did you know that’s my very first blog award? I’ll try to pick it up and get it posted over here tomorrow. 🙂
Mary I prefer the soccer too. I should have researched what is involved more throroughly.
One thing they’ll get out of it (I hope) is an object lesson in the value of sticking with something once you’ve made a commitment. I say this having no idea how the whole thing is going to go. We’ll find out though, won’t we?
Doris I’m glad we’re in this one together! Hopefully we’ll make a good showing as football moms this season.
Then we can go back to soccer mom….right?
Mrs Schmitty,
I found you through Liz’s Blog-To Show yesterday. 🙂 I’m looking forward to reading your blog as well. And thank you for the compliment on the header! I’m pretty thrilled with it as well. Which reminds me…I promised the boys we’d put their characters on tee shirts. Better put that on the todo list.
The soccer league that we’ve played in the past few years is an “everybody plays” league. We actually drive to the next town to participate, because the one in our town is competitive.
I think competitive is good, but when they’re older. My neighbor’s daughter plays on the local league and they seem happy with it, so it may not be tremendously intense. However, I think that your point about having fun when they’re young is spot on. The song “Let Them Be Little” keeps running through my head whenever I think about it.
Yup! I have to agree that AYSO is much better as far as being competitve goes. The local one is much more competitive….They’re very open about the fact that this is to prepare for the high school teams. The girls coach was very involved in the AYSO and he very much believes in keeping it fun….so at this older age I think he’s the exception to the rule. I do have to say that both my boys had fun last year anyway though…my less competitive child didn’t mind sitting out and he did still get to play at least 1/2 of the game which is what AYSO requires. I’m curious though….is football already practicing??????????? Wow! I’m enjoying my summer of not having to run children anywhere….ok so I’m at the stage where I do have to run one got drivers training in GR for the next three weeks……scarey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just think…..in a few years you get double the fun with that!!!!! LOL
Nice to read about it.Thanks.
Soccer is more secure and healty for our children