Sometimes sports terms can be so over-dramatic. You want to criticize the phrase but you really GET what it means.
The moment that goal hit the net, ‘IT’ was over. The whole shabang. 10+ years of standing on the side of a field or court, reduced to one slow-mo moment when the realization strikes that those days have come to a grinding halt.
Ok, some mothers can also be so over-dramatic.
Yes, soccer season ended last Friday. Danny’s team made a valiant effort but the host of injuries the team had suffered, coupled with the soccer gods not being on our side – oh and the fact that the other team scored that one damn goal at the right place at the right time – ended the playoffs in the first round.
There stood a team of mohawked heads – some bleached blonde – stunned as their last efforts were just not good enough. Yes, someone has to win and someone has to lose.
But the loss was not only on the field that day. It was the loss of an era. The retirement of the Soccer Mom (and Dad) in many of us. Second child, last sports season. How the hell did that happen?
I think back on the years when we were in the thick of 2 kids in sports. The weeks of running, running, running. Work left undone to make it to the game on time. The rainy days, the games as it turned dark, the traffic, the late dinners or no dinners at all. Homework till midnight and laundry, laundry, laundry. Lost uniform parts and broken laces and temper tantrums abounded. (those might have been mine)
I know it sounds crazy, but I am really going to miss all that. Well, maybe not all of it. But I think the end of parenting eras are like childbirth. You don’t remember the labor all that clearly, but you never forget the way it felt when they handed you that infant.
Likewise, I will try to fade the memories of being soaked to the bone or frenzied too far to enjoy ‘the moments’, and I will forever keep the image of my kids on the field, running their hearts out, having the time of their lives.
It is no coincidence that the day after the game I heard this song, not once, but twice on the radio. “For what it’s worth, it was worth all the while.”
Email subscribers, click the still frame link to watch the video, and join me in a good cry…
this Tuesday.
Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.
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i could cry but i don't have time 
Remember, this will be a year of firsts for you and Gary…its all good……..Team sports (read: any activity that your kids love to do) build character and builds good parenting. It can bond families in ways we never thought possible, It gives us time to be families, its gives each child the attention they need from us and we want to give them. it’s something akin to family game night (where’s Milton Bradley when you need them?) or a road trip to see the leaves change.
Its all about the process, and to quote Bob Dylan, “the times they are – changin'”
remember to enjoy the moment…..