Five on Friday: Continuing Education for a Novice Soccer Mom

First two kids: into reading, drawing, putting on plays, as I expected any child I'd raise would be.

Third child: drawn to anything that could be perceived as sports equipment at a very young age. Could outrun me by the time he was four years old and around that age observed, "You're not too sportable, Mommy, but I am very sportarific."

I decided at that point to get him to repeat the phrase, "One sport per season, one sport per season." (If you are wondering how that worked out, I am currently juggling five teams' schedules between him and his equally sportable two younger siblings, so . . . not great.)

He's a high school sophomore now and, to his credit, he's technically only on one team currently, the varsity soccer team. You might think I'd know everything I need to know as a soccer mom at this point but then you might not really know me that well . . . because I'm still learning.

Some recent lessons learned:

1. It is always worth carting my old lady bleacher chair and fuzzy blanket to the stands no matter how far they are from the parking lot. 

2. When the players miss a goal and the other spectators shout, "Good idea!," I am supposed to refrain from cracking up. (Listen, at this point I truly do know that it's just a thing people say but sometimes I can't help but to pretend shout, "Trying to get the ball in the goal---novel idea, kids! Suuuuper original!" and then the giggle suppression kicks in.)

3. Nobody thinks I'm cool for referring to the goalie as the keeper.

4. At the High School Varsity level, clapping for the other team's really nice move is frowned upon.

5. Apparently being a left-footer is a really big deal, which I did know but forgot. I remembered when I shared this video of an awesome goal he made and that's what all the sportarific people commented on.

*Postscript: My older kids are still more like me, though. Older sister may need to brush up on her soccer sister skillset: