Getting Real With Wanda Morrissey
I was always told ‘never say never’, yet I often hear myself saying “I’ll never do that” and just as often I find myself doing that thing I said I never would.
The latest never that I’ve gone back on is: “I’ll never sign my child up for any activities until he’s old enough to tell me what he wants to do.” My reasoning was that before then he’d be too young to know what he wanted, too young to maintain any long term interest, too young to understand a lot of rules, just too young.
Then I started to worry about how much interaction Jeffrey was getting with other children. He’s an only child who spends the majority of his time with his dad and me. At our weekly playgroup, I noticed that he barely interacted with the other children. If another child showed an interest in what he was doing he would abandon it and move on to something else. He’d act the same way even if I tried to get him to join me and another parent and child for a group activity. I wanted him to feel comfortable around other children and to learn how to make friends. So, I took back another ‘never’ and started looking for an activity that I thought Jeffrey might enjoy.
One day at playgroup I stumbled upon an activity that I thought Jeffrey would like. I’m always checking out the bulletin boards at the centre where playgroup is held and that is where I saw the notice for Little Kickers. They promised a no pressure and fun introduction to soccer for children under 5. It sounded good to me so I checked out their website. I liked what I saw and signed Jeffrey up for six classes of Junior Kickers – ages 2 – 3.5 years.
Jeffrey’s first class was on Saturday. I was right, he didn’t understand all the instructions or pay attention half the time but neither did the other children and that was okay. I realized I was holding out on signing him up for things because I was afraid he would act his age.
Jeffrey had a blast. I have to say that his coach is great. He has loads of patience, included everyone and made it really fun. Jeffrey actually interacted with another little boy, taking turns kicking a ball – that, for me, was worth the cost of enrollment. If this is how I can get him to interact with other children then I’ll be signing him up for another round of Little Kickers when this round ends.
I wonder what never I’ll have to take back next…
