When I wrote the post below about an experience at Jack's football camp I hesitated to put it up because I was concerned some of you might wonder why I actually let him play football if I feel like he has to be "deprogrammed" afterward. So I'm feeling the need to qualify.
For starters, I think you have to deprogram your kid from a lot of things, including school sometimes, so it's really not anything new to make sure your kid takes all the new information and points of view he discovers and assimilates it in a way that agrees with you.
Secondly, we've been really happy with almost every aspect of the football program. It's a volunteer organization and, as is always the case, some volunteers are better than others. There's not much that can be done about the over-competitive parents and coaches that you will run across in your lifetime, except for learn to deal with them.
Third, I don't think I can express to you how much Jack loves football. I don't understand it myself, but I've given up trying. It's been great for his fitness and his confidence.Jack's not an overly-expressive kind of guy, but the happiest I've ever seen him is when he's playing football. No amount of misguided pep talks could make me take that away from him.
Lastly, this morning Jack had a lot of questions, so he, Greg and I had this really long conversation about plasma (the fourth stage of matter) and electricity and atoms and electrons and how you split atoms and what happens when you do. Well, Greg and Jack had a conversation and I mostly listened and wished I'd had more caffeine. It ended with Greg pulling out his college physics textbooks and then realizing they were no help because they're all based on calculus and me typing "quantum physics for kids" into the search box at Amazon.com. Honestly, I think it's good to have an outlet where the only thing you have to think about is knocking over the guy in front of you.
Let's talk about de-programming! Tay just joined Job's Daughters...umm...we may be un-joining soon. Really soon. We spend 1-2 hrs. a week there and the rest of the week wondering why we ever let her join. Volunteers are probably the weirdest group of people ever. I should know, I am one!
Posted by: Alisa | June 02, 2008 at 05:23 PM