KD is exhausted. He has circles under his eyes and a sore throat and cough. He’s crabby and isn’t listening. He doesn’t want to eat. It’s a struggle to get out the door. He’s too busy and struggling to keep up with everything. He’s limping into a much needed, four-day all star break. It’s time for the next chapter of my recent posts: “Did you top-off the tank?” https://rivercitycounseling.com/auto-draft-26/trackback. And: “Just let KD and his mates have fun.” https://rivercitycounseling.com/auto-draft-31/trackback.
KD is on a “rec” indoor soccer team. It’s a super low-key team with his mates from school. There are no practices, and the games are on Friday nights. But there’s nothing low-key about a commute on the busiest freeway in the city to play a game after an exhausting week. He’s also on a basketball team in a local league. It’s pretty low-key but the practice is on a weeknight and the games are early on Saturday morning. It’s a bit of a push, but things seemed pretty doable (at least from my cushy chair in my office. My wife might think differently!)
But now, baseball is starting. KD had tryouts for a few hours on two Saturday afternoons in a row. I understood the first, but from my vantage point on the metal stands, I didn’t understand needing a second tryout. And if you’re keeping track at home, that was three sports within 18 hours. In my wife’s words, this was a complete “rookie move.” And KD was wearing down.
Fortunately, basketball and soccer are ending and he’ll be settling into just baseball. At first glance, the schedule seemed pretty doable, until we learned he has Sunday practices. KD loves it; he’d practice seven days a week if we’d let him. But we parents have reached our limit, and the buck stops here. I’ve learned that lots of teams practice on Sunday, but he’s only 8 and can’t keep up.
More importantly, Sunday is our family day… I work five nights/week, and our time together is golden. We all need time to hang out, recuperate from a long week, and be lazy together. Someday (i.e. high school) he’ll probably have some, but for now Sunday practices are our limit. They ain’t happening!
Until next time…