NOT a Soccer Mom

Anyone that knows me at all knows that I am not a soccer mom. I mean, I am a soccer mom, I’m just not a fanatical soccer mom. While I do enjoy watching my kids play I don’t like the other stuff that goes along with it.

For instance, I do not enjoy the hours spent practicing, the required 30 min./1hour arrival before a game, the 20 minute post game run down of every significant event that happened on the field, the heat, the cold, the bugs. In those ways, I’m REALLY not a soccer mom, and I won’t apologize for it. But, like I said, I’m happy to sit and watch my kid out on the field…which brings me to the whole reason I’m even writing this post.

Today was day one of Landon’s soccer tournament. Luckily, we’re only doing one tournament this season, so I figured I’d just go with it and keep the complaints to a minimum, which I was very successful about, I think.

But, here’s what going to a tournament looks like on my end:

I’m up early (6am as usual. Thanks Koko!) and jump in the shower because I know I’m going to be busy and leaving for the game kind of early. (Game starts at 10am, which means Landon has to be on the field by 9:30am, which means leaving just after 9am to get there.) After getting the kids dressed and fed (Tony did help here some) I start thinking about what I need to pack in the van.

• blanket to sit on the ground
• chairs in case ground is too wet
• bag of toys for Kota
• toys for Harper
• snacks for both kids
• drinks for both kids
• change of clothes for both kids
• diapers for Dakota
• camera
• stroller
• hats for both kids
• sunblock (which I ended up forgetting)
• comb and hair tie for Dakota’s hair

You get the picture.

Since Landon’s game started at 10, I thought I’d let Kota get her morning snooze which is usually about an hour from 9am-10am. She was tired by about 8:45 though so I put her down early and she fell right to sleep. Perfect! After getting all the stuff packed in the car, all I had to do was get shoes on Harper, have him use the potty, find my sunglasses, get Dakota up from her nap and go…but not until I’d let the dog out one last time so that she wouldn’t have an accident in the house.

I get both kids in the car and we’re on our way with plenty of time to make the game before it starts. Except the second I see route 97, I know we’re going to be late. It’s crawling for some unknown reason but our exit is the first one, so I’m not too worried. We make it to our exit and just as I’m thinking we may actually make it on time after all, we come to a dead stop because of another traffic issue; this time a backed up stoplight. It didn’t take too long to get through, and we made it to the field only 7 minutes after the first half began. Not too bad.

I get out, get all the above stuff out of the car, and make my way to the field. I throw out our blanket and all the toys and snacks and prepare to watch Landon play. I realize about 5 minutes in that my pants are getting wet through the blanket, so I go and get a chair. Neither of the kids wants anything to do with any of the toys I brought, and Dakota finds a water bottle she’s much more interested while Harper goes through every snack I’ve brought. I sit in the chair for about 2-3 minutes and then realize that I didn’t change Dakota’s diaper after her nap because we were in a rush to leave, so I grab her and go change her diaper in the car. She’s so happy in the car that I decide we’ll just sit in the back end of the van and watch the game from there. Once Harper realizes what we’re doing (he was sitting with Mema, not alone!) he too wants to come sit in the van. Once they’re both in the van climbing all over the place it’s hard for me to watch anything on the field because I have to worry every second that one of them is going to be injured.

The final whistle blows and the game is over. I head back over to the field with both kids to start gathering our things. I’ve watched approximately 2 minutes of the entire game and have no idea what the score is. Fortunately, Landon had the ball for a good portion of the time I was about to pay attention and I saw him play very well. He was doing everything he could to get a goal, but it just didn’t happen for him today.

I get everything thrown back into the van and everyone is wondering why I’m not staying for the second game. The second game that doesn’t even start until noon.

Ugh.