Starting With Soccer

Early on in our marriage my husband and I discussed plans for how our children's childhoods would be scheduled and structured. My husband grew up in a rural area, lived in the middle of the woods, and had limited scheduled activities. His imagination often served as his playmate and he has wonderful memories of laying in the grass, staring at the clouds, and getting lost all day in a world he created. I, on the other hand, grew up in the suburbs and was overbooked with activities. I have great memories of daily dance classes, swim team, soccer, cheerleading, piano, horseback riding, Girl Scouts, and even not-so-great memories of softball and tennis. I tried just about everything.

Of course we each see the value in the different ways we grew up in regard to activities. Our mothers made decisions based on their own childhoods and what they had available for us. My mom grew up with a strict father who didn't allow activities, so she wanted her daughters to benefit from the social aspect and the various abilities we would learn. My mother-in-law simply didn't have the choices growing up and focused on a few things, like music and basketball for my husband. Both ways of raising children make sense. So, we've agreed to meet in the middle.

We've started slowly. Our two and half year old has taken one gymnastics class so far. I have a tendency to overbook life in general and always thought I would be the mom in the Mommy & Me classes. However, I quickly learned that working full-time doesn't really allow for much, so I've totally laid off the schedule. I figured I was taking a step back from the way I was raised and tend to do things.

Funny thing happened the other day, though... A friend e-mailed me an update, mentioning that her son (who is two months younger than mine) is in soccer and loving it. WHAT?!?! Instantly, I went into panic mode. We could have been in soccer and I missed it? I quickly asked how I could sign up for these classes and we were scheduled for the Spring session within 24 hours. It was like I was crazed knowing I might miss that opportunity for my son. I started playing soccer young, how can I not offer him the same benefit?

I'm not sure that this means I'm on the road to worrying I might not give him the right or enough opportunities to excel and overbooking him because of it, but I know the place it must have come from for my own mother. And I get it. We all want well-rounded children who are given every opportunity to find their passion and learn to be great.

I just hope that I keep it all in perspective when he's old enough to try everything there is out there and choose thoughtfully. In the meantime, I cannot wait to see him kick around a little soccer ball. After all, it was my first sport, too.

Lisa is a mother to a toddler with another on the way and blogs about her often nutty, always overbooked life at www.Hannemaniacs.com. She is a member of the Yahoo! Motherboard.

(Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net / Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot.)