My little Man

Watching your children grow and adapt and find themselves is so amazing! Kindrick started football this year after about a year of asking me to play. He is just about the youngest player on his team of 16 boys. When I signed him up I was of course excited because I love sports and have always been hopeful that Kindrick would choose to play. I didn't realize at the time how much more we would all get out of the experience. Because it is his first season and he is so young I knew it was going to be hard work, and honestly had my doubts as to whether he would still want to play and have the enthusiasm to stick with it. He has far exceeded my expectations and shown me that he is such a determined and strong young man. He goes to these two hour practices where they literally get their butts kicked the entire time. They have 2 min water breaks (they are timed) and other then that is full out conditioning and hard work the entire practices. Honestly I watch these kids and think WOW if they have this kind of heart and drive at these young ages imagine the people they could turn out to be. Now don't think I haven't questioned my decision to let him play at such a young age....every time there is a kid down on the field my heart drops until I see his number still standing. The 3rd week of practice when a kid snapped his forearm I thought to myself why did I think this was such a great idea. It was Kindricks response to that day that made me realize I had the fear not him. I asked him what he thought about the ambulance coming and the kid breaking his arm?? He responded " well I really don't want to break anything but if I do Oh well it will heal I guess" There you go that is just how easy it is! So simply put but with a deeper meaning, that I have since thought about quite a bit. He might get knocked down, even shed some tears and sometimes feel scared to go against certain bigger players. He always gets back up dusts himself off and tries again, with a positive attitude. If that same amazing spirit can transcend into his life in other areas he will succeed at whatever he wants. It is the realization that you might get hurt, and it will be hard but if you keep getting back you will feel good about yourself and you will eventually achieve your goal. We are so proud of him! He had his first game last Sunday and was so excited and proud of himself. After the game (which they kicked butt and won by a mile) was over you could see the pride glowing from him all day.

Now I will say this has been a learning experience and it has not all been positive...... There did come a point however where Kindrick had his one and only practice where he said he didn't want to go and he didn't want to play football. On this day I sat with him and told him that he had made the decision to play football and that he needed to follow through with it. I told him that he had made a commitment to a team and himself, and that I thought he wouldn't feel very good if he just quit (this was week 3 of practice and after the 2nd day of full contact tackle). I empathized with him about being nervous and scared to get hit, and I told him it was ok to feel that way. I also asked him if part of his reasoning was because he wasnt as good as he wanted to be. As we talked more and he opened up he told me that he just wanted to be the best on the team but wasnt, and that some of the kids on the team were "jerks". We made the plan together that he would choose to stay away from the jerks, and that if after this season he was done with football that was fine. He told me that "he would rather have NO friends on the team then to hang out with mean kids"! We also talked about how if you give up on something before you give it your all that you will never get good at anything. Long story short he went to practice that day and worked so hard even his coaches were surprised! After practice I asked him if he was glad he decided to go?? He told me in his little exhausted 5 year old way that he was so glad I didnt let him stay home and that his was not going to say he wanted to quit or not go to practice again. He felt so good about himself, and has not mentioned quitting again. I learned from this that as a parent you are obligated to push your kids in a positive way, but also that there is a fine balance of making sure you push them for reasons that better who they are and who they will become. You must make sure that you are encouraging them and letting them know that you understand and are open ears to their concerns. It is easy to just say Your not quitting, it is the process you go through to make them want to persevere that will create great outcomes.