Tough Love and Good Times

My son, Nick begged his dad and I to let him play tackle football this Fall. We finally relented and signed him up, bought him cleats, paid his fees and practice started last week. Saturday was his first full contact practice. It was ROUGH!!! Let me back up and tell you that my son has always been a rough and tumble little boy. From his first year on, tickle fights and wrestling matches have been common forms of affection in our house. I thought tackling another boy in a safe, supervised, fully-padded manner would be right up his alley! I thought wrong. He was scared and he got creamed. Many times.

All weekend he begged and pleaded and cried for us to please let him quit football. My husband was certain that things would get better and he was not agreeable to quitting. He is a veteran of pee-wee, league and high school football and has sworn to me that many valuable life lessons can be learned on the football field. I, being Mommy, was ready to call the whole thing off and pull my boy into my arms and never let him go! Last night was practice #2 and, much as I hate to admit when my husband is right, things did get better! Tough love is...tough! Not only on your kids! It's so hard to, in your mind, know you are doing the right thing, but feel your heart breaking while you're doing it. I know that this will not be the last time we have to practice tough love with our kids and I'm grateful that I have a husband who will let me cry on his shoulder while he is patiently (and repeatedly)telling me we are doing the right thing.

In the middle of all this mama-drama, we got to spend some time with old neighbors who've moved away and came back to Texas for a visit. We gathered around the kitchen table and reminisced about the good (and some not so good) times we shared together in our old neighborhood. It was like taking a walk back in time!! We giggled and gossipped and it was sweet and familiar and healing to my soul!