All we need is eachother...: To play or not to play...

Julio and I decided to register Julian in a toddler soccer team to 'teach' him the concept of teamwork, structure and have him do something fun. Little did I know that I would be the one learning a lesson…

On Julian’s first practice, he wanted nothing to do with the other kids. He didn’t want to talk to the coaches, do exercises, or even kick the ball. This was frustrating for me as I see all of the other children happily running up and down the field as my son sat in the middle of the field pulling on the grass. On Julian’s first game, we had zero expectations. Again, Julian did not respond to my pleas and sat on the sidelines. Halfway through the game, something came over him and he ran on the field and actually started playing. For this, he got tons of praise and even got a trip to McDonalds. The next game, he wanted to be goalie and did pretty well. While running down the field, he stopped to say, “Look everyone, there’s my baby sister!” causing all his teammates to stop and look away from where the ball was rolling. All the parents laughed as the other team scored a goal. My son also sings the Wonder Pets theme song while chasing the ball down the field at the games.

Once I stopped trying to get my son to cooperate, I noticed that I’m not the only parent with an uncooperative toddler. One child refuses to play soccer unless she is wearing her sunglasses even if it’s a cloudy day, another child stops to look at the sky every time an airplane flies by, some kids will stop to cry because ‘they want a turn to hold the ball’ and I am constantly hearing parents yelling, “No hands!” from the sidelines.

I went into this trying to teach Julian a couple life lessons but instead I learned to live in the moment. Toddlers are all about right now. If they’re doing something that they like, they enjoy it to the fullest (or at least until they get bored). They don’t waste time and energy worrying about other stuff like following the rules of the game. They embrace the here and now, because that’s all they know. Now I will have to let him be and marvel at the beauty of a carefree child…