Soccer

When Parker was a young 4, we took him to soccer class. He never really got into it. He could do the actual skills, but he wouldn't pay attention. After many weeks of frustration (more mine than his), I said enough. He understood the deal and said that when he was five he wanted to try soccer again. I figured he would forget until I remembered it was Parker (who doesn't forget anything). Sure enough, when he turned five he started asking about when he would do soccer again. I ignored him for about a month and was planning on ignoring him longer when a mom at the preschool said a local city parks and rec had tot soccer at a perfect time for a perfect cost. Her kid would do it if Parker did it. So I signed him up. I couldn't go to the first class since I had a dentist appointment so she took them both and said they both did fine.

I attended the second class yesterday and boy, oh, boy was it a doozy. It started off fine with some games and drills, but when about 15 minutes before the end of the class they started to actually try to play a little one on one, it all fell apart. Parker couldn't get the ball from the other kid (his friend) and started freaking out, crying, screaming. The coach tried to calm him down, but it was too late. Parker couldn't pull it together. The coach paired him with a 3 year old (there are only 4 kids in the whole class) to see if Parker would do better with him, but no, continued hysteria. He came to sit with me and sobbed and sobbed about how he didn't want to do this any more and it was too hard and he wasn't fast enough. I told him he could just sit with me. They were all playing one more game where they had to kick the ball around and when the coach said something put a body part on the ball. I asked Parker who was still crying if he wanted to try it. He said no, but then changed his mind a few minutes later. But when the ball got away from him when he tried to sit on it, he lost it again. He couldn't recover. It was actually quite sad and I did my best not to start crying myself.

By the time we got to the outside (the class was inside because it was raining), he was ok. Then his coach walked by. I explained to him that Parker wasn't used to not being good at something immediately. He said he understood and added that he didn't understand the competition aspect of the game yet. He said he has seen it before and they usually get it in a couple weeks. He also told me he was actually good at the skills. I told him we would try again next week but if we got a repeat I wouldn't torture the poor kid by making him come.

Then the coach turned to Parker and told him he did a great job today and Parker burst into tears again. Thanks coach.

Later that day, we talked about soccer and how it is like checkers and connect four and how trying to beat someone while they are trying to beat you is the whole game. I also got him a soccer ball and some cones so he could practice. Then today we played a game where all four of us named 3 things we were good at, things we did easily and 3 things we weren't as good at or that were hard for us. He didn't actually say Soccer for the one of the three things, but I think it helped to hear what the girls and I weren't good at.

We'll see how next week goes, but I predict repeat chaos.