Tuesday

It was bound to happen sooner or later. The day it will happen is Thursday November 20, 2008. I will be initiated into the club of Sports Mom. My oldest son will start his very first basketball practice. He is elated. So elated, he practically floated on air and sang the words to his siblings. He has been waiting a very long time for this day.

I hope, hope, hope that he will not be disappointed. And I really hope that he has a lot of fun.

I am glad that the coach is a father of one of his teammates, but I did not catch the name because I was still catching my breath when I heard the words “basketball”, “first practice”, “Thursday” and “$50”. I had kinda hoped, when I got the letter saying that there were going to be 13 kids who could not be placed on a team if someone did not step up an volunteer to coach, that there would be no basketball this year.

It’s purely selfish. I will admit that. I am not ready for to give up precious evenings for practices and Saturdays for games and…gasp…tournaments? It has very little to do with what would be good for my son. Things like sportsmanship, working on a team, practice, focus, concentration, and having fun playing a sport.

Nope. It’s all about me and how it will affect my life.

Shame on me.

It is going to be very hard. It is going to impact my week that is already very tightly scheduled.

Tulip, too bad. Suck it up and deal with it. The smile on that boy’s face. The excitement in his voice when he talked about his first practice. The fact that he was so excited he could hardly sleep. How can you deny him this joy?

It’s not about the money. It’s not about the time. It is about the boy. He needs this. He wants this. So, we will adjust our lives and make it work. And I will be the proudest Basketball Mom on the sidelines, snapping pictures and putting scrapbook pages together in my head the whole time!