raising godzillas

On being a bad basketball mom

Until this February, none of my kids have ever played a sport. Maybe surprising, because I have always striven to have them in multiple activities, especially since joining up with a virtual charter school that will pay for them. Neither Brian or I really played sports- to be accurate, I played one year of Pony League baseball, just as the law started making them let girls play. Needless to say, it scarred me away from sports pretty much forever. Add to that, we live in the Pacific Northwest, which means whatever season you play in, you have a chance of doing it in the rain. I am not mom enough to sit in the rain, pretending to cheer my kid on in an endeavour that bores me to death. A friend, whose sons play soccer whether they like to or not ( I don't agree in that- except for swimming, which I consider a lifesaving skill, activities are by choice) has told me for years that if it was my kid playing, I would become interested. I never believed him, but didn't say so.
So, last fall Andrew noticed a sign for basketball sign-ups at the Centre at Norpoint, where he takes swimming and homeschool PE. He wanted to to that. I thought about that...a sport? One of my geekspawn? But...it's indoors. I won't have to sit in the rain. We can do this.
Practice started. Andrew has some skills, but has never played team sports before. NO. CLUE. about team play. After one practice and one scrimmage...first game. We get home, and Andrew says "We won!" Brian asks me what the score was. I say "I don't really think they keep score at their level". Brian "You didn't pay attention, you just sat there knitting". Despite Andrew's defense of me, I was guilty as charged.
I think I'm a pretty good mom, but like all of us, I have limits. Olivia has never done Girl Scouts because I don't like having cookies sold at me, and I don't want to try to sell them to other people. My kids have never done outdoor sports because I refuse to sit in the rain. And while I will faithfully drive Andrew to every practise and game, I just can't drum up an interest in the the game itself. I do glance up enough to know that he flits between concern for players on both sides and his own "7 year old boy ADOS" (Attention Deficit....Oooooh, Shiny!) tendency to be doing anything but play the game. In a way, it's less painful to have my knitting at hand. And you know what? As long as I support my kids, it's OK not to find it entertaining.

posted by gojirama @ 6:56 PM