It has been 14 months since my children have done anything organized, outside of school. And now, suddenly, we are in the thick of it.
Before the pandemic, I wrote about how I didn’t think I was a soccer mom, even though I had always dreamed of being one. Now, things have changed. Not only am I a soccer mom, I am a T-ball mom and a gymnastics mom. Having two children navigating two sports each is tiring, but I am embracing it this time around. We are everywhere. I am loving it.
We had a full year without other kids to play with outside of our pod. A year without playing sports anywhere except the backyard. (And trust me, living in the city means we don’t have a large backyard.) A year without rushing to practice, packing up equipment, tying cleats, tightening hats, filling water bottles. I didn’t realize it was possible, but I missed it.
Spring is always a busy time for us, as it is for most. Between birthdays, holidays, sports, the end of the school year approaching, summer planning, etc., it always seems like the spring flies by without us even realizing it.
This year, though? This year is different. I am embracing it. And enjoying it. I smile while taking the boys to multiple sports in one day. I smile while watching them have time away from me, even though I’m still there. I smile watching their eyes smile, since I can’t see their actual smiles under the masks.
I am not complaining — well, trying not to — about the double game and practice nights, the late bedtimes, the dirty cleats everywhere, the soccer balls falling out of my car at every stop.
I much prefer this to what we had — or rather, did not have — last year.
