Five on Friday: This Season's Must-Haves!

Sport season, that is. Also known as the SOCCER MOM SURVIVAL KIT:

1. Bleacher seat. I cannot stress the importance of this one enough. Yes, it's nice to have a seat back (I see you, parents that climb to the way top of the bleachers to have something to lean against) but it's more than that. Those metal bleacher seats get COLD. And sometimes wet. Do your back and ass a favor and get one of these.

2. Blanket! Gloves! Umbrella! Hat! Layers! Have I mentioned it gets COLD when the sun goes down? And they do not care about rain, they just keep playing.

3. A few dollars in your pocket in case the snack shack is open and you need to:

    a. Buy hot dogs because there's no cooking dinner when there's double over time

    b. Appease younger child

    c. Get a hot drink because you are freezing

4. Tissues for that moment when . . . 

{you're in the state semi-finals and the score is 2-1  and there is literally one minute left of the game and the ref who has appeared to be hellbent on sabotaging our team (hey, I don't make those assessments, I don't understand most of the calls but when even the very level-headed fans are saying the ref is biased, I believe them) gives our amazing goalie a yellow card (a yellow card! For taking more than six seconds to kick the ball!) which means} 

. . . YOUR FRESHMAN SON who's been bench warming for the varsity team is called in for that VERY LAST MINUTE of the state semi-finals and the other team is AFTER BLOOD and you--very surprisingly to yourself--start shaking and feel your eyes well up with tears. You might need tissues for that.

(By the way, he did fine, was offended that I was worried, and our team won 3-1.)

Totally crying.

5. Lastly, make sure to have your phone ready to take video of exciting moments of the game (for example, that last minute of the game as described above) that your husband will later censor all the cursing and, I might add, hilarious commentary to share it on soccer team's social media.