Soccer Mom

Today I got to watch Hudson play soccer for the first time. Last week was his first game but I didn't get to watch because Paige had gymnastics. Soccer is an hour long and the first half an hour they do "warm up" which means stretching and they work on skills like ball control and such. The second half hour is the "game." The game consists of 4 players from each team playing on 1 quarter of the field. There is no real structure-just fun and getting familiar with the sport. Hudson is very excited to be playing.

He loves being on a team and wearing a uniform and making friends. He is a very enthusiastic player. That being said, he is less than aggressive. He runs back and forth with the herd of players but never gets in the middle. He waits til the ball is passed to him (albeit accidentally, there is little passing among 4 year olds.) He will not take the ball from anyone! I have always been extremely proud of how mild mannered he is but today I found myself yelling "GET THE BALL! TAKE THE BALL!!" I did manage to take the time to explain that you should never take the ball from your own teammate (he is on the Snickers team.) Although, most of the kids will not hesitate to steal the ball from their own team, I don't want him the become THAT aggressive. I am not sure how to get him to go after the ball. I am afraid he gets that from me.

Although I played sports when I was younger, I don't think I was ever categorized as aggressive. Travis is very aggressive when it comes to sports but I am not one for conflict. Travis would say that it is not conflict when you are talking about sports and I agree but there is something about jumping in the middle of an angry mob to get a rubber ball that I can just not make myself do. I would be interested in seeing Paige play soccer. I am sure that she would not hesitate to kick some kid in the shin to get a soccer ball. Well, I guess we will cross that bridge when we get there.

In the meantime, I am going to continue to bring out the aggressiveness in my beloved baby boy. I am not sure how to do this, but it is what every good soccer mom must do.