My kids are finally old enough to ask to play sports! We put them in when they were small…like tee ball, but they didn’t really want to play, they wanted to hang onto Daddy and play in the dirt. We decided that we would try other things such as gymnastics and Girl Scouts for a while.
Then last year, one asked to play basketball. She had never played but wanted to give it a try. Another one of our daughter asked to play soccer and we signed her up. I have THREE kids and so my hubby and I decided that we would look at the following things before signing them up.
1.) Location of where games will be played
2.) Cost involved
3.) Time commitment
4.) Friends on the Team
We knew we did not want to do anything competitive at their ages and decided that we would start with recreational leagues. (I highly suggest this for the first year or two of ANY sport!) We also didn’t want a league that would require a lot of travel and expense. We knew it would cost around $100 to sign them up, but for the most part that included uniforms as well. The time commitment was a big one as we have THREE kids. We wanted teams that would have one practice and one game a week, preferably not more then that. And last, we wanted our girls to play on teams with friends. We have very friendly girls and knew they could MAKE friends, but us already knowing another kid/parent on the team is vital. It takes a village to raise a kid and since we have THREE, we knew we would need help time to time getting kids to and from.
We do not allow our kids to quit. If we sign them up, they will continue thru the season. We feel like this is a life lesson that they NEED to learn and although we are sympathetic of their dismay from time to time, we aren’t quitters. It’s a family value of ours.
Now with that being said, if our kids are on a team that the coach is below reproach, we would pull them. Having coaches with integrity is important to us. We have watched coaches emotionally tear down players and that is not acceptable to us as we value our children too much to allow it.
Look at your City Website for leagues, churches, and rec centers!
