Holy Crap, I'm a Soccer Mom

Alyssa's playing soccer again this fall. This is the third league she's been on since she was six turning seven. She loves it. She loves everything about soccer, the running, the team play, the competition, did I mention the running? When she's old enough we're definitely encouraging her to go out for track and cross country. When she was two, my uncle, who has been a track coach for the local high school for years watched her run across the yard. He declared that when she's twelve, he'd love to be able to coach her. She's a natural runner.

Today was her second game of this 'season.' I like this league because it's just Sunday afternoon. No weekday practices, just an hour on Sunday for seven Sundays. We all get outside and she gets to run to her heart's content.

So I'm a soccer mom. And Tom? He's that dad. During the twenty minute practice the kids were doing with their coaches from the local university, we watched. And we realized that one particular kid was being quite obnoxious. Not only was he being arrogant and obnoxious toward his coaches (he'd kick the ball toward the goal, make it go way past the goal and expect one of the coaches to go get it. Then, when it was tossed back to him, he'd kick it again, even though the kids were supposed to kick the ball into the goal one time and move to the back of the line.)

Ugh!! I can't stand kids like that. They ruin it for everyone. And of course, his stupid dad was right there along the field, watching, probably thinking his kid is awesome, better than all the rest, teaching his peers how it's really done.

But then the kid moved from just being obnoxious to his coaches to bullying his teammates.

When he'd move back in the line, he'd try to kick the other kids' soccer balls away from them.

One little girl had her ball kicked away from her three times. She missed her turn at the goal at least twice. Tom had had enough. He went to the coaches and told them what we'd observed. I was so proud of him. I wish I were more like that. If he hadn't been there, I'm not sure I'd have said anything.

Tom told them that it wasn't his kid being affected by the bully but he was sure that child's parents were on the side, watching, wondering when the hell those coaches were going to do something about it.

At that point, practice ended and the game started so we weren't able to see if the coaches were actually going to do something about it. But I am so glad Tom spoke up.

I may be a soccer mom, but he's an awesome soccer dad.

This doesn't deserve its own post because, well, it's a watermelon, but it's a watermelon that we picked from our own garden, a melon that we didn't plan on. The plants came up voluntarily from scraps we threw into the garden last fall. This watermelon weighed 40 pounds. That's FIVE more pounds that Olivia weighs for Pete Sakes. And amazingly, it was delicious. In fact, we're STILL eating it.