What Kind of Sick Twist of Fate is This?!

Short Person decided to play soccer. Yea!!

After last year, we really weren't sure it was ever going to happen again. We signed her up for the local recreation district's soccer program with disastrous results. Instead of teaching the kids anything about soccer, the teenage coach just ran them around the field a lot with another set of 15 kids and one soccer ball.

Short Person learned more from me, just passing the soccer ball to her and taking her to soccer games, than she learned in that waste of an hour that was last year.

I know, I know... "Tell me how you really feel, Mel."

This year, rather than risk the same results, I signed her up at the local YMCA. The program cost more money, but also less in some areas since I don't need to buy her new soccer shoes, she can just wear tennies. Also, it is indoor, so I don't need to worry about rain or cold or any other things that would make a 4-year-old cranky. They also have practices and "games".

Today was our first practice and it went so much better than last year. There were two coaches, adult males with kids of their own, and it ran like you'd expect soccer practice to run. In other words, if you arrived you would see 10 little kids learning to play soccer and not a clusterfarge of kids running screaming around a grassy plain.

We still had a couple moments of tears-- once when the coach was lining the kids up to do something. Short Person came running over so upset that the coach was asking them to do something and she didn't know how to do it. I explained that this was what soccer practice was, to learn how to do things. Didn't help. Then, I saw that they were lining them up to pass the ball back and forth. Yea for small miracles, I simply explained that she was too kick the ball to the person across from her like when mommy kicks it to her and she kicks back.

The other tears were for getting hurt (lol, I made her shake it out and jiggled her foot until it was better. Laughter through tears is such a great emotion); and, when they were scrimmaging and she couldn't understand why the other kids weren't letting her have a turn.

I may have messed this one up.

I explained that her job was to go and get the ball. And, if she was able to kick the ball, she needed to kick, kick, kick until the ball was no longer there.

Shin guards and soccer socks... $15.00
Signing up for soccer... $80.00
Watching my daughter land the perfect kick right into the mid-section of the goalkeeper's stomach... priceless.

We might need to work on that a bit. "Kick the ball, Sweetheart, not the person."

I am so happy about how much better this program has already turned out to be, but in some sick twist of fate, 90% of her games are at 8:00am.

Can you believe that?!

Oh, how ironic.