Pushing It To The Limits

All parents, but especially homeschooling parents, devote a ton of time to their children.  They sit by for hours on end listening to piano recitals, watching budding gymnasts flip and tumble, fanning themselves in the summer  heat while their child runs the bases...  I've done lots of watching and waiting over the last twenty five years of parenting, but tonight was one of those memorable ones for a not so good reason.  I sat tonight in freezing cold, windy conditions on a muddy football field in Andover watching my six year old practice for arena football and getting pushed around by the other boys because my little spitfire of a boy, who doesn't take any crap from anyone and will knock his teenage brother to his knees with a good hit, is a pansy on the football field.  He stands there and lets the other boys nail him over and over.  He gets in place to do his own tackling and tiptoes toward his opponent, wrapping him in what looks like a hug instead of a beastly knock down.  I don't get it.  And on nights like tonight, when I'm cold and tired and wishing to be anywhere but where I was, it was especially hard to be the parent on the sidelines.  After two hours and ten minutes the coach finally let those little frozen popsicles go home and my little man wimpered and told me how cold and tired he was and "momma please just take me home!"  So I took off his equipment, wrapped him in a blanket, buckled him in his car seat and headed home.  As he defrosted he started talking and I asked him if he really liked football and did he really think it was for him.  He said "Mom, I didn't like the cold, but I loved the hitting.  It was great!"  Go figure!  So I guess I'll be out there again, watching him take a beating and hoping that he's learning something about the game and about life.  The weather may have been pushing this woman to her limits tonight, but my little son wasn't even close to being pushed to his and that's all that really matters.