Lara: "It's just a game, it's just a game, it's just a ..."

I myself have recently entered the world of elementary school sports, and I'm trying really hard to not be one of "those" parents. Susannah played soccer with LYSA last spring for the first time, and it was very laid back, 5 vs. 5, boys and girls, on a tiny field. And it - was - hilarious! Nobody kept score, there were no goalies, the kids just flocked around the ball and flailed away. By the end of the season, a few of the kids had figured out that if they could get the ball away from the pack and dribble down the field, they could actually score a goal! Everybody had fun, everybody was happy, half the parents sat around and chatted and didn't even watch the game.

Well, that was U6. Now she's in U8, and it's a whole new ballgame, so to speak. The good news is that it is all girls, because there were a few boys last season that were pretty big and pretty competitive. But now it's 7 players plus a goalie on each team, and they play on a field that is probably 3 to 4 times as large as the one they played on in U6.

So I found out all of this during practices (2 per week before school started, but thankfully only 1 per week now) from talking to the other moms, so I wasn't surprised to see the giant field. I was actually happy because it looked so nice and pretty and flat and green, and I wanted to run around and play myself!

What I was not prepared for was how much it seems that the games actually MATTER now! I don't know it is. It might be because the fields are so damn big that when the ball actually goes near the goal, it's really hard to keep from screaming your brains out - GO! GO! GO! KICK IT! SHOOT IT! - and then the ball slowly dribbles out of bounds behind the goal.

So I've been trying really hard to quell my inner competitiveness, and I've been very good about only yelling helpful, encouraging things, like NICE TRY, ABBY! GOOD JOB, ISABEL! THAT'S OKAY, LUCIE! The problem is that the game seems to matter much more to ME. The girls are having a great time; most of the parents still sit and chat and only cheer occasionally; there have been no fights between parents of opposing teams (and I've heard some stories). All in all it's still pretty laid back and enjoyable. So why is it that I feel exhausted after every game?

Well, I'm doing my best to stay detached, but deep down I know my general good mood this afternoon might have something to do with the fact that we finally won our first game! Sigh.

But if you ever see me barking "RUN!" to my child, a la Chuck Comer, just shoot me.