Baseball is a tough sport for someone who struggles with attention and focus.
Bug hunting is more fitting for my 7 year old. The only requirement for that activity is choosing which bug (spider, snake, rodent...) to chase or catch. No attention span length required.
My little guy has mixed feelings about baseball. He loves to bat. His perfect game would consist of 100 times at bat with no fielding required.
Sometimes he is super excited for a game.
Sometimes he isn't.
Sometimes it changes every five minutes.
Tonight he was ready to go. All was well until three minutes before the game was supposed to start. One moment he was warming up, the next he was walking toward me with his coach, an ice pack, and tears streaming down his face.
The story went something like this:
"The coach threw the ball to me and accidentally jammed my thumb. I don't want to play tonight. I am not going back out there. I really don't want to play! I don't even like playing baseball!"
Needless to say, it was going downhill quickly.
I cranked up my mommy logic and explained that the team really needed him, because who would play short stop if he didn't play? And, of course, they needed him to bat so he could hit some people in to score. I did all the 'bend your thumb down, bend it back, wiggle it' mom-appropriate checks; and when he grabbed it and yanked it diagonally and told me that hurt just a little, I knew he was fine.
He still wasn't buying it.
He was NOT playing.
I transitioned into 'let's be tough' mode and show your teammates and coaches how you can overcome pain.
I may have mentioned ice cream.
After a few more determined "I don't want to's," the truth came slipping out.
"Mom, if I go back there, I don't want it to look like I have been crying."
Ah ha. No problem. Wipe the tears. Pull the hat down low. Good as new.
And off he went.
And he played short stop.
Hit some runs in.
And scored a run.
No comments:
Post a Comment