Looking back, the 2011 Tustin Western Little League season seemed to just fly by this year. And yet as a parent when you’re in the heat of battle it actually takes a lot of time and dedication to keep your boys on track. It seems as if there is always another practice at the field, the batting cages or another game. When you have two sons in the game as I do, it gets even more hectic. I thought about signing up my third and youngest son as well, but I just couldn’t bring myself to the point of earning 4 more points working another field day. So he will have to wait until next year. I will somehow have to figure out a way to store up enough energy to get him into the game. I can only imagine how consuming it must be for the coaches who have multiple sons playing the game.
But all the effort is worth it. The boys are learning lessons they will carry around with them for a lifetime. They may be lessons that they in fact they pass on to their sons. The skills they learn, the disappointments they encounter and the victories they obtain will all contribute to developing their character. The trophies they win may land up on their desk someday as a tribute to their childhood and the journey of becoming men. The friendships they make with other boys in the hunt for victory may also endure for a lifetime.
But as parents, we also learn something about life. We remember they are only boys. We sometimes want or expect them to act like men. But they are still boys. They play the game with all their sensitivities in tact. They still cry at times and wear their hurt on their sleeves. But what they really want is to play and have fun. Somehow we need to allow them that privilege as well. And when we do, it allow us as parents with all the responsibilities we endure to feel those care free days of days of summer again.
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