Bryce and Caleb were looking forward to going to basketball since they got up this morning. Robb practiced passes with them in the kitchen and they were shooting hoops in the basement most of the afternoon. Robb had a little chat with them before we left to go and told them "have fun, try your hardest, and make sure you listen and pay attention".
We got there and they got signed in and put their t shirts on. We were early so they both grabbed a ball and were shooting around with the coaches and other kids. They had a group huddle where the guy explained the rules and then he had them line up. The boys didn't line up together and he started them off in teams of 8. Here is where our problem started... Bryce was confused where he was supposed to go and Caleb looked terrified that he wasn't on the same team as Bryce. Second problem: Caleb got the loud, expects a little too much from the kindergartners coach. Bryce on the other hand got the soft spoken high school girl. I was nervous from the start and Robb kept assuring me that they would be fine. It went alright for a little bit but then you see that Caleb was getting nervous when he couldn't do it or didn't understand the instructions. Not to mention his coach was not an appropriate kindergarten coach. Pretty soon Caleb was attempting to dribble with tears running down his face. I wanted to cry, grab him, take him home, hug him and tell him that he never has to go back. Robb on the other hand told me to leave him be and he would be fine. A couple minutes went by and we both started feeling really bad for him so finally we had him join Bryce's team with the nice high school coach but it was too late. The poor kid was already too sad and nervous and continued to cry off and on while he played. It was a torturous 10 minutes watching this. Bryce on the other hand looked nervous but managed to keep it together. He was doing what they asked of him and doing a good job but still looked unsure. Again we felt like we made a bad decision about signing them up for this.
After it was over they both said that they had fun but I think Caleb was saying that for our benefit not because that is what he really thought. On the way home we stopped to get Gatorade's and candy to make everyone feel better about how the afternoon went.
I'm not sure if I am ready for them to grow up! I guess it is probably good that Robb keeps me in check because I probably would be the "helicopter mom" that annoys everyone otherwise.
This is the before picture.
Bryce's group
Caleb's group
The after picture. I giant smile on Caleb's face is to try to hide the tears. Poor guy!
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