My Joe Joe. He's constantly keeping us on our toes. He's loving soccer, loves the uniform, loves the snacks, loves being with the kids. We're still working on a focus on the game. He loves to twirl and generally stare into space. Trav and I must've yelled at least fifteen times from the sidelines, "Jonah, where's the ball?" To get him to focus. One time he just started randomly running down the field not even realizing the ball was right behind him with no one else around. The ball eventually got him in the back of the heels. It's all good in his eyes, he's having a blast. Which is truly all that matters, and I mean that, from the bottom of my heart.
We have had a sportsmanship issue come up with him that we've been tackling. My boy is a heckler, and a loud one at that, of any team he's playing. I can hear, clear as day, across the field, "ha ha you missed!!!" and various other scorns from his mouth. It is SO embarrassing. No other kid is doing it, just mine. Trav addressed it a few times already, but there I was, on my own last Saturday while Trav was out of town, and Jonah kicked it into high gear with his mean taunts. I thought about yelling across the field (and it's a big one) "Jonah, knock it off!" and give him one of my most stern looks. But who wants to be the crazy mom yelling at her kid who's yelling at everyone else's kids? I waited, and then I saw Jonah engage a player from the opposite team, words were being exchanged. I jumped up, walked all the way around the field to the coaches section and asked him to pull my son from the game and tell him why. I then went and sat back down and questioned whether I did the right thing or not, should I have intervened? I wished Trav had been there with me, he always knows what to do with stuff like this.
I acted like everything was fine and told him he had some great kicks on the ball and waited till we got home. I then asked why he sat out most of the game. He said it was b/c he was yelling and then asked me if I would leave him alone b/c he wanted privacy. Trav and I both went over it with him and then we role played what he could do when the other team scores or misses. We gave him some positive catch phrases to use.
Tuesday we headed out again for another game, hopeful that Jonah would show us what he's made of in good sportsmanship. He was AWESOME. He didn't yell anything mean once, AND he even high fived the other team when they scored! We were so proud of him. His team got totally slaughtered, but our boy had an amazing attitude. Victory!!
3 comments:
You handled the situation beautifully. He is keeping you on his toes. Loved the story of him being chased down the field by the ball:0)
Annette...I feel ya. You intervened and handled things well, though. Sometimes I get tired of intervening, but if you let things go then kids get the impression that it's an okay thing to do.
Audrey has been hitting other kids lately which can be humbling for me. I have to pause my conversation to pull her aside, explain why we don't do that, etc. She's a brute so she doesn't cry when hit by others she just takes matters into her own hands. Aaah...the sins of the mother are coming back to get me! :)
Keep blogging about your experiences, though. It gives me comfort that I'm not alone. The joys of having strong willed children!
I'm sorry but I could just picture Jonah on the field heckling the other kids and I laughed out loud! You are such a great mom, always calm and collected, you did great, I probably would have been the annoying mom yelling across the field!
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