I Accidentally Became a Soccer Mom
We registered our daughter for recreational soccer as an attempt to allow her to develop gross motor skills, experience being on a team, and have fun with her best friend outside of school.
It seemed simple enough – we would take her to practice one night out of the week, play a game on the weekend, watch her run around, and it would be fun!
Then, on the first game weekend of the season, I found myself knee-deep in the soccer world. I am scrambling around the night before the game to make sure our only pair of soccer socks is clean, checking, then double-checking, then TRIPLE-checking the game schedule to make sure I’m putting my child in the correct color jersey, and doing backward math to determine the absolute latest time I need to wake myself up to feed everyone breakfast, dress myself and kids, get to the sports complex, figure out parking, and find the correct field to arrive at our game in time.
In a real rookie mistake, we leave the wagon and stroller at home and are left balancing drinks, snacks, soccer balls, the diaper bag, a baby, and the big kid as we trek across the gigantic parking lot from our cars to the fields. At the end of the night, I am nursing a pretty gnarly sunburn after staying at the fields for hours watching our other friends play their games, all without an ounce of sunscreen on my arms.
It hit me at once… “Am I a soccer mom now?”
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Honestly, registering our daughter for soccer has turned out to be even more sweet and more wholesome than I imagined. Our daughter truly loves running around the soccer field with her best friend, repeating motivational statements to herself such as, “I tried my best,” “I have to focus on running after the ball”, and “I am a soccer rocker like my daddy watches on his tv”.
I love getting our family out to the soccer fields and experiencing the electric energy of all of the kids excited and ready for game day. Looking out onto the fields and seeing all of the families present to support their children playing soccer is truly heartwarming to me. Our baby also loves being out at the fields, clapping for her big sister, and trying to kick the ball like the other kids. I love that we are teaching her to support her big sister at an early age.
The community that soccer builds also brings me so much joy. Our daughter can meet new friends on her own team, and on game days we love to go and watch our other friends play on other teams and cheer for them.
Recreational soccer has been an unexpected joy for our family that I hope continues for many years!
