More soccer talk

I was just sitting here doing a little math, and I realized that by the end of this weekend, my children will have had 30 soccer games in the last four weekends. That seems a little ridiculous.

Here's the deal: When they have a tournament, they will play 3-4 games. And if both kids are in the tournament, that's 8 games. And if both kids are not in the tournament, a coach might ask the kid who is not in the tournament to guest play for another team in their league because our family will be there anyway. And sometimes the coach will ask them to guest play for another team even if their regular team is in the tournament because the team that needs help plays on Friday night.

Plus, we do have a neglected third child who has a game every Saturday.

So that's how we can have up to 10 games on any given weekend. And that's why I am not caught up on laundry and why linen pants are still hanging in my closet.

I do realize that we have a choice. We can say no to the coach asking for our daughter to guest play. And I have no problem saying no. But, we'll be there anyway, my girls LOVE to play, and they would like to do nothing other than play soccer. So for now, we play (and watch) lots and lots of soccer.

My goal (as I may have mentioned before) is not to raise soccer players. Which may sound contrary to how we are spending our time (at least 8 hours/week actually practicing the sport in an organized setting-- plus 2 or more hours spent playing at home or in a pick-up game at the park--plus the actual games and warm -up time before games--plus driving to all these things). But I am hoping they are developing some life skills and character traits (such as loyalty, teamwork, dealing with disappointment, hard work, perseverance, rejoicing in others' success, punctuality) while exercising and spending time with their best friends. I never have to make them go to practice-- they are always eager to play and count down the days until game time. And I'm ok if (when?) they decide that soccer is not for them at some point. None of this will be a waste of time as long as the focus is not on soccer or winning but on developing their character.