Hey Dads!

Hey Dads! The nice weather is here, are your kids doing any summer sports? I’ve talked to a few dads this spring that are running full tilt into soccer, baseball, and even summer hockey for the serious dads…I mean kids. Our own kids dusted off the summer bins in the shed and unloaded them in piles all over the yard and driveway. Bikes, bats, and balls strewn about and hopefully not behind our van. Now that I think about it, there could be a few extra dents and scratches on the van already. It’s hard to tell with all the rust but I wonder how they got there?
Soccer balls and volley balls seem to have a short life span around our place. There’s either a lot of bad lawn mower drivers in our family or a lot of forgetful children that leave their sports balls all over the yard. Or maybe both. I may have seen the soccer ball in the grass and tried to mow around it instead of getting off to move it. If you think professional soccer players can make a ball move fast, you should see what happens when it gets sucked into a 7-foot finishing mower.
I was talking to another dad this week who was doing his best to coach his young son on the soccer field. In the net to be exact. But some kids just don’t want to listen (You probably never experienced that but some parents have). So, this dad was advising his son, the soccer goalie, to move out of the net to try to cut off the angle of the shooters so they have less net to shoot at. Pro tips from dad. Did the son listen? He did not.
The other team began to approach and dad kept yelling, I mean, telling, him, “Get out of the net! Get out of the net!” The son must have finally decided to listen because he quickly started moving out towards the shooters. But he got caught up in the net, tripped, and fell flat on his face in the grass. In the net to be exact. Like literally, he was caught in the net! Chalk one up for the other team. But aren’t some of the best lessons learned from failure?
And sometimes some kids just aren’t cut out for athletics. I coached my son’s soccer team a few years ago. “Coach” may be an exaggeration. It was mostly trying to get a bunch of 6 year-olds to kick the ball. But my son was less interested in the soccer and more interested in one of the other boys’ new digital watch. It was painful to observe the boys out there pushing buttons on the watch as the other team strolled on by to score. Well, that’s not totally true because the other kids were also distracted by snacks and birds and their own watches and such. But that’s okay! We’re here for a good time, not a long time, right dad? Maybe put your phone down, head outside with the kids and kick the ball around for a bit. Time flies! Make every moment count. Especially the almost athletic ones.
Jason Weening kicks balls to his 10 kids and one formerly athletic wife. Read more in his book, “Yes, Dear…I’m Watching Them” on Amazon.