Why do we all go nuts when we watch our kids play? Well, we all know it happens, so what is the solution? I have an idea that I would love for you to all try.
My son, Chuck, was a goalie. I promise there is nothing on the softball field more terrifying than seeing a skilled player streaking towards your kid, unguarded, with the ball on his feet while your kid tries to defend the gigantic goal that is behind him. No matter what happened to create that situation, no matter who else screwed up, he was all alone and everyone expected him to pull a miracle out of his pocket.
Well, once in a while he made an amazing stop and more often the other kid drilled the ball into the back of the net. My son always felt like he failed but I was always proud of the fact that he did everything he could.
What I learned from the pressure cooker of your son being the goalie was that parents are insane. I started down the road of insanity but then I learned a valuable lesson. When I was watching my son I was caught up in the emotion of all the other parents around me.
Whether it was the “coaching expert” who had all the answers. Or the “Refs Suck” parent who blamed everything that happened on the kids making $10 bucks a game refereeing the games. Or the “it’s not my kids fault” parents who had an excuse for every mistake their kids made that allowed the fast break assault of my sons goal. Or the “I am going to yell at my kid to make him play better” parent, it didn’t really matter.
Being in a whirlpool of emotion created emotion in me. I would bounce back and forth between all the emotions you can imagine and most of them were negative. I had no fun watching because the people I was around were so negative.
So what was my solution? Move away from the madness! Get out of the whirlpool of craziness and you will feel a sense of relief you can’t imaging. Yes I missed out on some of the social aspect of hanging with the other parents during the games but I was so much happier that I think I enjoyed the post-game dinners, picnics and get-togethers with those same parents so much more.
I see a lot of these individual shelters at the ballpark on the cold days. Maybe those should be required equipment for all parents?
