Sports and Such

I haven't blogged in a long time. I am sorry. It has a lot to do with not a whole lot of things going on. Jack is loving kindergarten. Our latest development is his sudden hatred of the hot lunches at school. I had been paying the $2.50 per day for him to get the hot lunches. Most of the menu items are things he likes - hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and pizza. But I guess all of a sudden they are NOT things he wants for lunch and begged me to pack him a lunch. I think it might be because a lot of his class were packing their lunches so he wanted to join the packed-lunch crowd. So peanut butter sandwiches and carrot sticks and yogurt are now the lunch-time fare, which he seems happy with for the minute.

We also tried to put him in football. I should say that it was more Jim's idea to put Jack into football than mine. I was about to sign him up at Taekwondo (which is a major financial commitment by the way) when Jim came home and told me he signed him up for football - tackle football! With the full pads, helmet and the whole thing. I pretty much knew at the time that he was not going to like it, because he's Jack. He's a very sensitive child and does not like to be tackled. He is not a rough and tough kid at all. But I thought at the time we would try it for one season.

He started out with practice twice a week and then when I got there, found out that the practices lasted almost 2 hours! From 5:30 - 7:30 Tues/Thurs we were at football practice, which peeved me because I think getting home from football practice at almost 8:00 is a bit late for 5 & 6 year olds. I could tell Jack did not enjoy the practices. The coaches, in my opinion, were too harsh with the boys and were yelling at them too much. But it got him outside in the fresh air exercising, which is a good thing. And I thought that once we got to the actual games, he would start to enjoy the game. So I continued taking him to practices.

I could not get a schedule for the games, when they would start, and where they were, to save my life. The organizers of the whole thing were not too organized at all!

The last practice we went to, Jack was crying pretty much the whole time. He was miserable and my heart was breaking for him. He just isn't made to be a football player. Then at the end of that practice, they said they were upping the practice schedule to 3 nights a week for two hours each night! I went above peeved straight to blood-pressure boiling point. These boys are five and six years old! They do not need to be practicing for 6 hours a week plus add a few hours for the actual games!

I went home that night and was angry. I told Jim that I wanted to pull Jack from the team. I can tell that Jim is disappointed and wanted Jack to stay in the game, but everything as a mother was screaming to pull him. And that is what I did. I understand the importance of learning to be on a team, getting exercise, and all that jazz, but when my five-year-old is miserable, all that jazz is not that important.

Yesterday, we signed him up (took the financial committment plunge) for Taekwondo. He LOVES it and he actually is pretty good at it. He was better than some of the boys who had been taking the classes longer than Jack. The classes are two or three times a week for 30 minutes per class. A more managable time for both Jack and Mom.