Sports Not so Bad After All
I grew up in a non-sports home. We just weren’t all that interested. We didn’t think of sports as “bad,” we just weren’t into team sports. (I hated them. Passionately. For reasons that have nothing to do with the sports and everything to do with how kids interact.) So I was rather nonplussed when my kids asked if they could be part of our church’s basketball program. I intended to let them, of course, but then my older son’s psychologist suggested that a team sport, especially one he could do separately from his brother, would be very good for him. So we signed up.
I got a call on Monday afternoon from our church’s sports coordinator, telling me that my older son’s basketball practise would begin Tuesday evening. It lasts an hour. I was trying to think what to do while he’s in practise, since I don’t want to drive home, turn around, and drive back. And shopping is a bad idea with my financial picture at the moment. Not to mention that my younger son will be bored out of his gourd with shopping.
Then it hit me. Our church is next door to a library. We can park at the church, drop off big brother, and walk across the parking lot to the library. So that’s what we did Tuesday night. And the young one had a blast. First we got him his very own library card. What a thrill! Then we each got six books (that took about 20 minutes) and then we went back to the church’s comfy lounge area and I read to him for a while. Then he wanted to play with some of the older boys who were hanging around, and these wonderful kids showed him how their toys worked and helped him play with them, while I read a bit out of one of my books.
My younger son’s basketball won’t start until January, but I can see that this is going to provide me with a chance to spend one-on-one time with each of my boys during the basketball season. That’s wonderful!