The shirt I’m wearing today says, “Baseball Mom” and I wear it proudly. My youngest plays 12U recreational baseball for the local city league. He is in love with baseball. He would play seven days a week if he could. His saddest day is the last ballgame of the season. His happiest day is the first practice of the new season. Honestly, I never thought I would enjoy it as much as I do. I look forward to the new season starting. I love watching him play. He’s a catcher and I have come to love the sound of the pop of the pitchers ball into the catchers mitt.
Charlie is the youngest of eleven kids. I’m not sure if I’ve ever written that in a post yet. It’s not a secret. It’s all over my ABOUT page. But, Charlie is the first to really play sports like this. A few of our kids were in gymnastics, one son played a season of baseball, but that was about it. When you have that many kids, sports is a really hard thing to have on the calendar. We made a choice a long time ago that we would not allow sports to consume us. If someone wanted to do something we figured out how to make that happen, but we wouldn’t let our lives be dictated by it. So, I was never that mom who shuffled my kids from field to gym to field to gym all week long. Life is just different when you have a really large family like ours. But I am fully aware that there are moms of a large families out there that have made it work.
Now our family is mostly grown up. So, we are getting a taste of what “normal” parenting could be like. I giggle as I write that because there’s still nothing normal about my life. Or maybe typical is a better word. For me, having a house full of people is normal. Cooking for 20 plus people is normal. Having one kid left in school is not normal for me, it’s new and unusual. I digress…sorry.
Being a baseball mom has given me a glimpse into the lives of other moms I didn’t have before. I’ve learned a lot. I’m thankful we made decisions before we entered this sport. It’s made it easier to navigate. Here’s a few things we decided and how it’s helped us.
No games on Sundays.
Charlie wanted to play flag football, but the practices & games were always on Sunday. We believe Scripture tells us to keep the Sabbath holy and Sunday is our Sabbath. We go to church and worship on Sundays. That’s our day of rest. That’s our day to mentally & physically prepare for the new week. We don’t do sports on Sundays. Thankfully this baseball league we are in agrees with that. There could be a practice late Sunday evenings, but that’s all and that’s ok.
Family, Church and School remain the priority.
We don’t let baseball become priority. As I type, my husband and Charlie are at the batting cages. It’s 10:00 in the morning, school hasn’t happened yet, but we homeschool so that’s ok. On days like today we just switch up the schedule. When he gets back, he will get his schoolwork done. If he doesn’t do his school work then there will be no more batting practice before school lessons. He knows that his lessons are priority.
Family is an easy one. These games actually increase our family time. HIs siblings love to come & cheer him on.
Just have fun!
One season in and Charlie was hooked. He wanted to join a travel ball team and make this his career because he was convinced MLB was in his future. We said no. He was 10, we are just here to have fun and now he’s 12 and we are still just here to have fun. One of Charlie’s coaches assists on a travel team and he applauds our stance because he didn’t and he wished he had. Our weekends are sacred to us, especially Sunday. We didn’t want to be traveling most weekends, staying in hotels, missing church because our son wanted to play ball. It just isn’t worth it to us. He’s making friends with the boys on his team, I’m making friends with the moms. We are just here to have fun, learn the game and build some character as we go. Once it starts to not be any fun then we are done.
One season at a time.
We are making no major decisions about his future in baseball. We are literally taking it one season at a time. This season he is fine tuning his skills as a catcher. He’s hoping to pitch a little and he loves working 1st base. After that, we will see. If he’s still loving the game when he’s 14 we may move to a homeschool sports league that is more competitive. Maybe. I don’t know. We will see.
My child is not the parent.
This is a biggie. And I’m sure I’m about to step on some toes. My son tried for about 10 minutes to convince me as to why he should be on a travel team. He knew beyond that it was futile. We have have a rule. If you ask me a question and I give an answer then we are done. You don’t have to like my answer, but you cannot keep asking. I am the parent and my answer is THE answer. There will be no negotiation. Now before you think we are harsh parents, we do listen to our kids. They change our minds all the time about things, but our kids know that the ultimate decision belongs to the parent. Here’s an example of what that conversation could look like.
Child: Can I do this? Parent: Why do you want to do that? Child: Because I think it’s a great idea and my friends are already doing it. Parent: I need better reasons than that. Keep talking.
Through the discussion a decision is made; either in favor of the child or not.
I talk to moms all the time that made a decision because their kids begged and pleaded and convinced the parents to do it even though the parents didn’t want to. Be the parent!
I think it’s important to decide ahead of time what is most important to your family as a unit. Can your whole family handle multiple practices and games? Can your family priorities still be maintained along side this sport? Does it fit with your vision for your family? Character building is important but sports isn’t the only way to teach that. What about the financial responsibility?
Sports are fun and can be a great part of your family dynamics, but they can also consume your life. That is the point of this post. Don’t let it consume. What should consume us? Wow! Now that’s a loaded question for another blog post. But I’ll just leave you with this. As Christian parents, we are to lead our kids to Christ, expose them to His truths, teach them the Gospel. If your sports activities are fitting in with that, keep going! Well done!
To God be the Glory!
Dana Bailey 