Thursday, March 27, 2008

Dirt Drawin’

Most people tell me I am over reacting when I talk about how nuts it makes me that my son spends the majority of his time in the outfield during baseball practice playing in the dirt.



Baseball1
He's only five-years-old,
they say, give him a break.



He's out there to have fun, not to set records.



I agree with these statements for the most part. I do want him to have fun and I don't care if he never makes the JV baseball team but I still want him to pay attention. I want him to learn to play the game and keep his focus on the ball for the duration of practices and games. I don't think that is too much to ask.



All of this came to a head last Saturday at practice when my son, crouched in the outfield drawing pictures of the family pets in the dirt, got clunked in the head with a fly ball. It was nothing serious. My son didn't cry and was more ticked about the interruption into his dirt-based masterpiece than any potential injury but the incident did serve the coach rather well in his continued plight to warn parents of the dangers of outfield dirt-playing. I sat on the bleachers for the duration of the speech, red faced knowing it was coming. And it came, "Don't be like poor T out there today. He got hit in the head with a baseball b/c he wasn't paying attention to the game. Now, thankfully, he's got a hard head and wasn't hurt but, Moms and Dads, we've got to teach these kids to pay attention to the ball." 



So, I've got two missions during the upcoming baseball season:



  1. Avoid any contact between the baseball and my son's noggin.


  2. Never hear my son's name used as the coach's cautionary tale again.


I'm thinking I may need to invest in some sort of tunnel vision safety goggles that hone in on the baseball and force my son's head to move in whatever direction the ball goes. If these don't exist yet, I need to invent them. I'm sure they'd sell like hotcakes. If anyone has any sage little league advice, I'm all ears.



17 comments:

  1. Maybe you should try baseball in 2 years or so? They grow up so much by then, and he might be really interested in the game at that age.
    Yeah, I'm saying he's only 5, and give him a break. No 5-year-old alive needs to concentrate on an entire baseball game! Just say no to organized sports for the barely-out-of-diapers set!

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  2. And the above comment was very kindly meant - please don't be annoyed. It's just that there is so much pressure these days to put kids in developmentally inappropriate play situations, it's hard to remember what really makes sense. It drives me crazy that I tried a couple of years ago to put my 8-year-old boy into a YMCA basketball session and I had to pull him out because he didn't already know how to play basketball! I mean, is this crazy, or what?

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  3. Darn you Suburban Correspondent and your rational advice!

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  4. Major League Baseball, this year, is requiring base coaches to wear helmets while in the coach's box, these guys get paid big buck to pay attention, and can't even see the steroids in the club house. Instead of team ball caps, let's just put them all in custom fit batters' helmets with built in face protectors, don't forget the padded cups and shin pads, there, if that doesn't help, skip the organized stuff, and head for the sandlot.

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  5. this one made me laugh out loud to myself

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  6. Di Vinci wrote everything backwards. He was a scientist (I think), and artist (I'm sure), and who knows what else! It took an apple falling on Isaac Newton to get the idea of gravity out to the masses. T might just be an unrecognized genius. No? Well. Then. Give him a break, he's only five.

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  7. I think you may have an artist on your hands instead of an athlete. Artistic minds like to drift(sort of like us writers). Maybe he's following Mama's footsteps and he will write a book about why he never liked baseball (hahaha)

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  8. One word. Soccer. My daughter makes GREAT dandelion crowns while she's out there. The ball is softer when it hits her too.

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  9. I am glad someone approached the issues of putting kids into soo many activities (Suburban Correspondent). This could be a touchy subject for some. I haven't done Kindermusic, sports, and or ran around for my almost 3 year old and 4 year old. I feel there is plenty of time for it.
    My mom and I were talking about this, honestly, my 4 year old is learning how to work in a group setting, team work, friendship, etc.... all in his preschool, things he could learn in those activities too. I told her that after school all he wants to do is "play". I just don't want to start taking him around and around to all these things going on. I am letting the boy play in his sandbox, play in the trees/hiding from us, playing on his fort, run in the yard, play with the dogs, etc...... Plus, with the price of gas and groceries I am hoping to save some money on all this. :)

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  10. Hey,
    Maybe you could say, if you stick this out Truman and really try hard, then Mommy will get you your very own "Dirt box" unlike a "sandbox". I think it is cute, but not the right time for his art time of course. Me, I might be a little annoyed w/ the coach making a remark about my son, using him as an example. It sounds like Truman didn't care at all. Although, I would be the wounded mom instead of the child.

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  11. At least for us, 6 seems to be the magic age. Kate is playing soccer this year and for the first time, she is really concentrating and enjoying it. We decided not to let our 4-year-old son play this time. So, we were wondering how it would all go down at the game today. It actually worked out great. Kate played her game and really liked it. Patrick suited up in cleats and a uniform and just kicked the ball around with some other boys on the field next to us. I have to say he had a much better time just playing freestyle with no organization and no expectations.

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  12. I think your baseball coach would be a prime candidate for one of my brain surgeries. I do not appreciate naming names (especially of kids) in public. I fear the coach has been hit in the noggin by the ball himself once too often. As for your son, I read once that this is exactly how Michaelangelo started.

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  13. If Truman really likes baseball, then stick with it. If he is somewhat indifferent about it, then maybe waiting a year or two would be a good thing. When Maggie was younger, we tried various things because I felt like I was being a crappy parent if I didn't keep up with the Jones'. She did tumbling, dance, swim lessons, karate....what I found is that she was much happier spending her Saturdays and/or weeknights at home with us doing family stuff. We are active in our church, which gives her good social interaction outside of school and is also a good way to be around others that share the type of values we want to instill in the kids. (and our church does a lot of activies other than just church on Sundays.)
    On a personal and selfish note, I wouldn't want to sit at ballgames or dance practices or tumbling practices, etc. and have it take up an important part of our free time unless I was sure it was something my kid really loved. To be honest, I am tired of hearing parents gripe at how they spend their whole summer traveling from ballpark to ballpark when they are the ones who put their kids in it in the first place.

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  14. Great day in the mornin'! I never thought this post would illicit such strong responses from people. That's why I love the blogosphere. You are forced to leave your expectations at the virtual door.
    I appreciate the advice and my son is, without a doubt, too young to pay attention to a baseball for an hour and a half. He loves it though and he requested to play many times despite my subtle David Beckham plugs.
    The coach rocks! His comments were in jest and everyone laughed (including my son). I realize I may have inadvertently portrayed him in a bad light. Despite being an all around great guy, he has a way with the five-year-old set that I admire. My son loves him and he is the primary reason that my son loves going to practice and games.

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  15. I hated sports so I see it from your little guy's viewpoint! Maybe he's just not ready for the intensity of a serious game. At any rate I'm glad those days (of spectating as my kids played sports) are behind me! Cute post.

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  16. I have picures of both my kids "dirt drawin", I think it is just a right of passage as a kid. My son is still occasionally more interested in seein how many times he can flip his glove in the air before catching it than what is happening in the game. As long as they are having fun, it's o.k.

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  17. Try a shock collar. Worked wonders for my little one.

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