Slowing Down

In April, Mark and I made a decision to put Conner into soccer. Mark signed on as the Assistant Coach, and even though we had no idea what was coming our way, we were welcoming it with excitement!

And then reality hit. We weren't ready for it at all.

A big part of our lack of preparedness was a misunderstanding of what the whole program is about. We had pictured and expected: kids on a field, with a ball and hopefully they would run the right way towards the right goal posts most of the time. The reality: Practice on Tuesday, game on Thursday and two tournaments, one of which is out of town. Ok, so it was more than we had expected, but we could handle it, for Conner.

So our lives morphed from the casual routine that we've all become accustomed, to one that was tightly scheduled, on Tuesdays and Thursdays at least. One small deviation from that schedule, and you guessed it, we're late. I won't go on too long; the soccer season in the Coleman family certainly didn't either. Conner simply couldn't handle it and while we had to wrestle with ourselves over the responsiblity we felt we owed to the team and to Conner to stick it out, our responsibility to look out for his best interests reigned. We hadn't considered the costs to our family and to each of us as individuals when we signed up. And while the benefits are many, in our case, they just weren't enough.

So for now, we're going to take a pass on organized activities. Maybe we'll join next year or the year after, or who knows, maybe our unique little family doesn't fit the organized mold.