OK - I Get It

So I have these friends, quite a few actually, whose kids play hockey.

I never understood why they would have their kids spend so much time playing one sport, which meant they also had to spend all that time watching their kid play that sport.

I always said “There is no way my kid is playing hockey. Spending all those hours at the rink each week so one person in our family of four can play hockey while the rest of us freeze to death - no thank you. And all the equipment - bluck. No thank you. And the weekend travel to tournaments - not gonna do it. Too much other fun stuff we could do as a family. And it’s so EXPENSIVE! No thank you.”

I now understand why you do it, because I’m doing it. Baseball is my hockey.

You do it because your kids love to play, and you love to watch them do what they love.

You do it because you actually love the game as much as they do.

You do it because if you weren’t spending that money on them, you’d probably be spending it on something less important anyway.

You do it because it’s still family time, even though it’s not hiking or camping or whatever.

You do it because you can still do all that family stuff anyway - hiking, camping, biking, hanging out.

You do it because it’s so fun to see them improving.

You do it because the coaches still understand the kids are kids and should get to act like kids.

You do it because it’s so awesome to see how happy they are when they learn something new or make a great play.

You do it because they still think you know things and come to lean on you when they made a mistake or couldn’t do what they were trying to do.

You do it because they still love having you around.

You do it because you know that at some point in the too-near future, they won’t be kids anymore.

You do it because you wouldn’t miss this part of their life for anything in the world.

So ya - I get it.