Naptime Blog

When I was a kid, I LOVED SUMMER BREAK!!! My oldest son Jeromy is into a lot of different sports. This year we decided to give football a try. He has tried everything else (soccer, basketball & baseball) I have to admit, I was a little nervous about football. I did not want my poor little 80 lb. baby to be tackled or roughed up too much. My husband had the whole “He’s a BOY” attitude.

Well,,,, I know that!! But he is still MY little boy.

Our local university was sponsoring a 1 week football camp. I was pleased to learn that it was flag football. Well, day 1 of camp rolled around and everybody was excited. I was just glad that my son was exploring something else. Day 1 of camp went great, he was sooooo excited when I picked him up that Monday afternoon. He had so many things to tell us and he couldn’t wait to show his dad some of his new moves. Jeromy even said that they worked him to death!!!  (he was exhausted )

Well, by Tuesday afternoon his excitement had decreased dramatically. When he got into the car, before I could even ask;  “How was camp?” Jeromy busted into tears.

Me: Son, what’s wrong??

Jeromy: Everybody hates me!!!

Me: Why do you think that son, no one hates you!!!

Jeromy: YES they do (sobbing uncontrollably)

Me: Son, calm down. What happened?

Jeromy: sobbing and speaking unrecognizable language,

Well long story short. They divided the boys up into 2 teams, Jeromy missed a big pass at the end of the game and his team lost. He felt like it was all his fault. I was crushed!! I couldn’t believe how upset he was. Well, we rushed over to my husband’s job. I knew dad could help with this one.

My husband gave Jeromy a really good pep talk. He shared with our son how everyone has a bad game and that he was not going to be a quitter!! My son insisted that he wasn’t going back to that camp. We kept encouraging him the rest of the day and asked him to give it another try. Well, he did!! By Thursday afternoon he LOVED football and wanted to find a team to join in the fall.

Moral: Encourage your kids to try new things!! Some things will work out for them and some will not, but at least they tried it!!

~Shanta