Am I Crazy?

Before you jump out of your seat and scream “YES!!” let me explain the situation in which I am contemplating my sanity this time…

My children are both involved, heavily, in sports.  They just are.  And I’m so very grateful because studies show the importance of sports in a child’s life.  They are active.  They love them.

My daughter is trading in her pom poms for real sports.  (I know, cheerleading IS a sport, but I just can’t seem to say that…we all know how I feel about cheerleaders…)

Last season she played softball and did amazingly well.  I coached.  I loved it.  Period.

So, when soccer season rolled around, she wanted to play and the league was short on coaches.  I know NOTHING about soccer except that you kick the ball, can’t touch it with your hands (unless you’re the goalie) and that shin guards are a must.  I didn’t feel that I would be a benefit as a coach, but I also knew that unless they got enough coaches, there was a chance that my daughter (or some other little girl in the county) would be deprived of a fall sport to particiapte in.

One of the moms who helped me in softball and attends my church coached last year and we talked and decided that we would co-coach a team.  This would also ensure that Sam and Haley were on the same team… something very important to both of them.

On more than one occassion I have mentioned to someone that I am coaching soccer this year and on more than one occassion I am looked at funny and the question is asked…

“Are you crazy?”

My response is “no.  I just want to be involved in my kids’ lives as long as they want me to be.  I have to be there anyway.”

One response was that I should just show up and sit there.

We all know that I cannot just sit there.  And Sam and I did very well when I coached softball.  I might go so far as to say that we bonded.  Maybe.

I missed a good three years of my kids’ lives while I was in school full time and working full time.  My parents did so many things for them, and still do, that I was incapable of doing due to time constraints.  I wouldn’t go back and change any of that now.  I went back to school so that I could get an education and provide a decent life for them.

When I divorced, I was making a whopping $18k a year… do the math.  It’s not enough to raise two children on.

And so I did.  I moved back home and my parents helped me.  I got my degree.  I got my own place and over the last 5 years, I’ve moved up the corporate ladder all while being blessed with family friendly companies along the way and finally ending with a job that allows me to work from home… so that I can be more involved in the kids’ lives.

I can feed them before practice.  I can take them to practice.  I can be here when they are sick and I don’t have to worry about snow days.  I am truly, truly blessed to have this arrangement.

And because of this arrangement, I have the opportunity to coach my daughter’s team (and Matthew’s out of the equation because reallly?  Could you see me coaching football?  And I’m so not the team mom type.)

My children are not always going to think I’m cool.  As they get older and get involved in school sports, I’m not going to have this opportunity.  I’m trying to make the best of the time that we have and so I’m coaching soccer.  A commitment of one night a week and Saturday morning for 2.5 months..(of which I would have to make myself available to be there anyway…)

So, my question remains…

Am I crazy?

Until next time…