Ellie has been playing soccer this summer at the Y. You have to sign up like 3 months in advance. When we asked her about playing, she said, "yeah, I'll play soccer!" I think maybe she just wanted to buy the pink soccer shoes and the Hannah Montana soccer ball!
Well the experience has been let's say, challenging. It started out great. We went to practice. She was the biggest kid there. She went out and played with a little encouragement while several other kids cowered in their parents arms. I thought to myself, "Wow this will be great!". Skip ahead to the first game. She goes out on the field for the first few minutes. Then comes back for a water break and she won't get out of the chair for the rest of the game. No amount of cajoling, threats, bribery. Nothing. It was frustrating to say the least.
Since then we have improved- a little. She does go to practice and play most of the time. The games have been harder. She gets freaked out by all the parents standing on the sidelines yelling. Or that's her excuse at least.
Today was hard. She missed last week's game and this week's practice while we were on vacation, so I don't know if that had anything to do with it. Plus we were late this morning and last night she wouldn't go to sleep, so she's probably tired. That's what I do... I analyze everything and try to figure out why. Why are they acting so terrible? I make excuses for bad behavior A LOT. I always try to relate bad behavior to sleep or food. There's a saying I heard once, "Feed them before they're hungry and sleep them before they're tired." I would add "too" in front of the hungry and tired. I've definitely found this to be excellent advice. Especially on younger kids. Logan can recover from lack of sleep or hunger much better than Ellie. I've decided though that sometimes they're just little assholes. Sorry if that sounds harsh to some of you, but it's how I feel after 8 years of parenting. I digress from this little rant.
Back to today. We got there and she would not go play. At all. I begged, I pleaded, I spanked her in the car. I finally spotted the sno-cone truck parked by the field. Bribery, what can I tell you, it works (sometimes at least!).
Here are some pictures of her from today. The one above is her in the chair where she would have liked to remain the entire time. For such a little toot, she sure looks cute. And below is the 1 minute she played. Baby steps.
4 comments:
She looks so cute in her soccer gear! Ethan did the same thing last year when he played soccer. We are going to give it a try again this fall. Ethan's friend Wadi is the little boy playing against Ellie!
Sounds like it just comes with the 5 year old territory. Can you imagine us getting out there and playing with adults we don't know and getting yelled at from teh sidelines? Hmmm...that does sound a wee bit stressful...but it's good for them to have new challenges.
I bet part of you is impressed she knows what she wants and the other part of you wants to throw your hands up. If she knew how cute she looked playing soccer, maybe it would help?
She looks adorable in her uniform!
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