On being a 'soccer mom'...

Sort of, anyway. I wasn't a true "soccer mom" in the usual sense, but my DD just finished up her first-ever soccer season and I did chauffeur her to her games and some of her practices.

DD had a great time playing soccer - she really seems to thrive on team activities. I admit that I actually enjoyed the experience as well. Being on the sidelines watching her come alive on the field and trying her best was fun. I also formed a rapport with the other parents - I was pleasantly surprised to find I had more in common with them than I thought.

I also liked the displays of sportsmanship. After every game, both teams line up and congratulate each other (sort of like the handshake at the end of an NHL playoff series), then run to the other sideline to be congratulated on their play by all the parents (for both teams). I thought that was a rather nice thing. There was also one game where we played a very small school that was one player shy of being able to field a team...so we lent them one of our better players.

That's not to say it was all perfect - there is one school where the parents and coaches seemed to take it just a bit *too* seriously for the age of the players. There were multiple teams for this school (as there were for many) and it seemed like all of their teams were more focused on winning at all costs than on having fun and displaying good sportsmanship. Being competitive is good, but there really is a practical limit - parents yelling at a child to 'shake it off and quit crying' when the child is obviously hurt is just not cool. And in talking to other parents, and to coworkers with children in other parochial schools, it seems that this particular school has rather a reputation for this sort of behavior. Fortunately every other school we faced seemed to have things in proper perspective.

The only other less-than-positive thing was that the games were on midday to early afternoon on Sundays, which played a bit of havoc with getting to Mass. For half of the games, DH and I went to separate Masses since he's more integral to the choir at our usual one than I am (being often the only male in the small group). It doesn't make sense to us for the parochial school league soccer to have to have games on Sundays, but perhaps that's the only time the fields were available.

But all in all, it was a good season, and I enjoyed it. I'm just glad to be back to our normal routine.