Last week my youngest son (age 8) suffered his first ever sports injury while doing a forward roll off of a trampoline in gymnastics class. He landed on his head the wrong way, got the wind knocked out of him and had a pretty sore neck and chest. Yikes! This was the first time I think he's ever really felt pain. It was scary for him and really scary for me.
Today, my teenager heads off to "two a days" at football practice. It's going to be 90 degrees today with high humidity. Ugh! I packed his lunch and loaded him up with Gatorade but will that be enough? It's hot as Haites out there!
How do we draw the line between letting them go and trying not to worry ourselves to death as parents? Truly we can't wrap them up in bubble wrap like we've seen on TV. We don't want to share our anxiety with them, which would certainly erode their own confidence. We want to encourage them, toughen them up, teach them good sportsmanship and social skills. Athletics are a way of keeping our kids healthy and fit.
This is all good stuff, right?
All I can do is shuttle them to practice, prepare them the best I can with sleep, nutrition and encouragement, trust the coaches to know what the heck they are doing with our kids and cheer them on from the sidelines....
Oh, and maybe try and get them to take up professional golf...still all of the skill and athleticism, but no linebacker pounding them into the turf or high flying landings off a high bar. A mom can dream...
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I can relate. i sent my two sons off to "hell week" and dauget off to "2 adys" for soccer. I suggest you get on the facebook MomsTeam page--they send out great info. The founder wrote Home Team Advantage-the critical role of mothers in youth sports for all of us--it is superb and so is MomsTeam for giving info. I also send my kids with an extra thermous of frozen water to hold next to their heads.
ReplyDeleteAwesome idea of a frozen thermos! I will definitely check out MomsTeam, thank you!
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