Remember those after-school (or "family viewing time") specials that they showed in the late-80's? They dealt with sex...drugs...most likely some rock-n-roll. Anyway, one was called, "Not My Kid!" and it focused on a kid that was in the wrong crowd, but her parents didn't want to believe it, hence the name.
This became a HUGE joke in my family...one of the sibs or I would do something and everyone else would shout, "Not my kid!" Huh, I wonder if the Bro, Sis, and Parental Units remember this...
I've found myself wanting to say this, nay, SHOUT this at the top of my lungs these days. Where you ask?
Soccer practice.
I'm coaching Boo's U5 team, so all the boys are already 5 or just turning 5 and Boo, FSM love him, is...um...not the best player on the team. After watching his dad, older sister, older brother, aunt, and me play countless games, one would think that he would pick up on some things. But, no. At our first practice, he kept trying to stop the ball with his hands. At the first game, he was the only kid to consistently go the wrong way. Granted, every player went the wrong way at least once, but Boo...every time he got the ball. At practice, he whines, cries if he trips, and moves at a snail's pace with the ball while the other boys are zooming around him like rockets shooting across the sky. As a self-proclaimed "jock" it's sometimes painful to watch, especially when he'll get mad or frustrated during a game and he runs over to me for a hug.
However, he is having fun. He almost got his first goal last week, on his birthday, and while he's not the fastest, toughest, or most skilled player on the team...he is the sweetest. He constantly has a smile on his face and when his teammates score, he gives them the biggest high-fives.
Going through this, I see what my dad must have gone through when he was coaching all three of us in our various sports...holy shit, it's a miracle he didn't kill us! It also reminds me that no matter how badly we want our kids to be "just like us" they are their own little people, and their strengths, as well as their weaknesses, are their own--and I'll love them fiercely and unconditionally regardless of what they do.
Unless one of them becomes a serial killer...I don't think I'd be cool with that.
