Frustrated
➺modern motherhood by ROBIN O’BRYANT
with your
Tale Computer? The of an AntiSoccer Mom Part II ast month I wrote about over-scheduled kids and my family’s personal aversion to team sports. I got mixed reviews. For the most part, readers felt relieved that they weren’t the only ones just saying, “No,” to every sport that comes along. But there were
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a few readers who vehemently disagreed with me. They said that team sports offered experiences that children couldn’t get anywhere else: team building, self-confidence, socialization, exercise—all by joining the soccer team. I agree. There is value in team sports, gymnastics, dance, and music lessons that you can’t get playing in a creek. But here’s the thing. I made the decision that was best for my children and my family and I want you to do the same thing. My best friend, Sister Wife (we share everything but clothes and husbands,) has three children who are extremely athletic. They thrive on team sports. For her family, it is worth the sacrifice to sit by the field Saturday after Saturday because she is helping her kids to develop a gift that God has given them. My older brother is a talented musician; some (including me) would even call him a musical genius. Growing up taking piano lessons with him made me feel like a failure. I was good at it, but I wasn’t as good as he was. He had found his calling and I felt like I was standing in his shadow. When I became pregnant with Aubrey, I started praying immediately, “Father show me her gifts. Show me who you have called her to be.” I prayed fervently, and continue to pray, for all three of my daughters that God would show me their gifts and callings so that I can help to develop them. I want them to pursue activities they are passionate about. Tiger Woods didn’t become Tiger Woods because his parents made him take soccer, baseball, football, ballet, badminton, and volleyball. Tiger Woods became great at golf because he played golf. Similarly, I want to help my children find what they love,
what they wish they could do every single day of their lives, and help them to be the best they can be at it—regardless of what it is. My two oldest started piano lessons a couple of weeks ago. I send them to the keyboard to practice often. Sometimes they go willingly, and other times they try to argue with me. Emma, my six-year-old, asked for only, “a guitar and sheep music” last year and knows the words to hundreds of songs. She also has a tendency to want to know how to do something without putting in the work. When she was four-yearsold, Emma used to cry at night, “Why won’t anybody in this house teach me how to read!” But if you tried to sound out words with her, she would become frustrated, “I don’t want to do it that way! I want to do it like Aubrey does!” “I know you do, but you gotta start somewhere,” I’d tell her. Last week, I told Emma to go practice her piano lessons. She huffed and stomped a tiny foot, “I don’t WANT to!” “Do you want to be a rock star or not?” I asked with raised eyebrows. She only hesitated for a split second before stomping out of the room to practice. I yelled after her, “You’ve got to start somewhere!” Y Robin O’Bryant is mother to three daughters, wife to one husband, and debut author of Ketchup Is A Vegetable And Other Lies Moms Tell Themselves. She shares the drama and hilarity of motherhood in her syndicated family humor column, “Robin’s Chicks” and on her blog by the same name (www.robinschicks.com).