To Play for Love

We've been putting it off for years.  Just the thought of having to sit in the bleachers enduring wind, rain, and the Texas heat makes my head hurt.  Because once this whole charade starts, it might not end for another 20 years or so.  And the idea of sacrificing 20 years of family life to a sport makes my stomach churn.  That said, I was prepared to go for it this year.  I was prepared to let my oldest son finally sign up for t-ball.

T-ball in Texas has become a ridiculous obsession for parents. Starting at 3 yrs old, little boys are treated like teenagers as they endure multiple nights of practices and games, try-outs and drafts, and all-star games and "world series."  It's both amusing and disgusting at the same time to watch parents turn America's favorite pastime into a career for their toddler.  Why in the world would any parent think their child has college or MLB potential when their child is only 4? 

It occurred to us that our desire to not burn out our son could be to his detriment at some point.  For example, we discovered that because of his birthday, this might be his last spring of eligibility for t-ball.  Thus by making him wait to play ball, we would be forcing him to skip that entire step of baseball.  Upon this discovery, Mr. Wonderful started searching for the least life-invasive little league around.  We agreed that Boy Wonder (who was hitting just fine without a tee at 2 or 3 yrs old) could finally sign up for baseball.  We marked the sign-up on our schedule and planned to commit our Saturdays during March and April to ballgames.

But then something happened. My son discovered a new sport.  Grandma and Grandpa gave him a tennis racket for Christmas and signed him up for tennis lessons at the rec center.  And he fell in love. It's mind-blowing that a 5 year old would be obsessed with such a grown-up-like sport, but Boy Wonder insists that he would rather play tennis than any other sport.  He has assured us that tennis is his game.  He was very adamant that he doesn't need to play baseball.  He informed us that if he needs to, he can always play that sport later!

And Hallelujah!  Our rec center has little kid tennis classes INSIDE the gym during the winter.  Not only that, but we found a coach who decided that both of our boys should get to learn the sport together.  (Who knew that our 3 yr old could volley so well?) I'm not saying that I have a world class doubles team in my house right now who will someday achieve a world ranking.  (I'm not that parent.)  But my boys are getting to enjoy playing a sport together.  We have found a sport that my son can play because he WANTS to.  Ah, "to play for love," such an appropriate definition out of the tennis history books. 

Even Baby G loves tennis lessons.  Today I even caught her placing balls on the face of the racket as if she were going to do drills with the boys.  Who knows, we might have a prodigy yet?