Careful What You Wish For…

I  had to talk with the kids about their spring activities (sports) schedules.  I was motivational, eloquent, a model mother.  “I don’t care what you decide to do, but you will not sit in the house and play video games all weekend!”  Okay, so maybe not THAT eloquent.  Motivational?  You bet.

Girl’s response, “I want to play soccer, continue in Guides and add a swim team so I can be in the pool twice a week.  We are still going to ski, though, right?  And we are running a 5K this spring?” Got it.  Nothing unexpected here.

Apprentice responds, “I want to ski, play hockey, swim, play soccer and try baseball.  Unless it doesn’t fit, then no baseball.  Definitely hockey.” No surprise there either.  Apprentice needs more time in the day.  And his own car.  Much to his credit, the kid wants to try everything out there.

Mid is the tough one.  He responds, “Fine. I will do soccer.  But I want to keep swimming.  I don’t want to ski all the time, though I want to SOMEtimes.  And I want to join the rock climbing club.  I think they also teach you how to boulder.  It looks awesome.”  Winning!  Once again, I begged him to sign up for soccer, as he just starting getting pretty good at it, and he acquiesced.  Wait… rock climbing? bouldering?  Mid was at a birthday party recently at an indoor climbing facility and apparently had a blast.  This was his motivation to climb mountains as well as ski down them.  I have mixed thoughts about this.  Sure, for now he is just going to a gym, getting harnessed up and climbing up to four stories with a certified instructor.  But soon, will I be the parent that has a son spelunking into caves?  Climbing towers in Dubai?  JB thinks that would be awesome.  A part of me does as well, but the mother in me thinks I should just sign him up for advanced algebra and be done with it.

After thinking about it for a few days, I signed him up.  After all, I had similar fears when Mid decided he wanted to play hockey.  When I voiced these fears to a good friend, she replied, “Really? You are afraid of him falling on the ice?  This from the woman who straps narrow boards to her kids feet at 12,000 feet in the mountains and says, “race you to the bottom!”  Let the kid play hockey.”  In the interest of full disclosure, it is her fault (and her son’s) that Apprentice is interested in hockey at all, because Apprentice thinks her son is the coolest kid ever and wants to do whatever he does, and he plays hockey.  And lacrosse.  Lord help me.  And, for the record, I don’t race my kids to the bottom of ski runs.  They can’t buy beer when they lose (yet).  But anyway…

To answer the obvious question, yes, I have a spreadsheet calendar with all the schedules mapped out.  In color, thank you.  Would it be too much to ask that all three of them do the same sports at the same time?  A Mom can dream…