Choosing Favorites?

There are only 2 adults here. Two grown, responsible parties. This means that our family can only be in two places at one time due to the whole ‘you-need-a-grown-up-to-drive’ thing.

 

We have 4 tiny humans and a 5th on the way.

 

The season has arrived in which we have royally screwed ourselves.

 

Let me back track a month or so; I was at the YMCA working out and realized that soccer season was coming to a close for my oldest two children. We had talked about the upcoming baseball possibilities and learned that our 7-year-old wasn’t interested – and thank god because she’s a swim team girl and wouldn’t be able to commit to another summer sport. But, we found out that our 3-year-old wanted nothing more than to play! “How freaking cute will he be?” my husband and I laughed! Out 5-year-old has been begging to play for a few seasons, so we knew he would be signed up.
I went ahead and signed up both boys (3 and 5 year olds) for a summer season at the ball field!

 

Last week, we were e-mailed the swim team schedule. Oh the fresh taste of early morning 5-day-a-week practices…. And even earlier weekend swim meets! I can’t lie, we love it. Two days later, I opened my baseball e-mail with information about our coach and the game schedules. How fun!? Saturdays at the ballpark! Wait… two games each Saturday, eh ok we can still do this… wait, son #1 is on field #1 at park ABC while son #2 is on field #3 at park XYZ – located nowhere near field ABC.

WTF just happened? We woke up and have three kids obligated to be in three completely different locations at the same time EVERY Saturday of the summer. FUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCK.

 

Welcome to mother f-ing parenthood of more than 2 kids.

 

The hubster and I sat down with a beer and a glass of wine (no I’m pregnant, I wouldn’t dare…) and discussed the problem at hand. We both want to be at every swim meet because it’s our firstborn’s sport. It’s her thing. And holy shit it is crazy intense to watch her swim. The 5-year-old has been promised a season of baseball for over a year. We have avoided it until now, but my GOD this kid is a natural born athlete. Struggling with speech and sensory issues, we never imagined he’d WANT to be on a team, and now he BEGS for it. He dominated the soccer field and loved a season of basketball; we couldn’t push baseball off any longer. Neither my husband and I are huge baseball fans, but we are excited for him to experience a new sport and team. And then there is our ornery little middle child. “He’s only 3,” we say. “He won’t hate us for long. He can play in the fall.”

 

It was as easy at that; we had just axed our thirdborn’s first team sport. We are horrible.

 

Had we just put our older children above the younger ones? Had we just picked favorites? The short answer… YES. We did pick favorites. We decided that, at this stage of life, it was better to follow-through with our oldest children. Are we right? Who the hell knows. But I do know that there was absolutely no way to be in three places at once – nor did I want to even try.

 

Some decisions are shitty to make, but workout for the entire family as a whole. Next year will be even harder. If anything, every year will become more difficult for us because of the age spacing, game times, and choice of sports. With this many kids, nothing will be exactly easy…. But somehow we will figure it all out – even if that means picking favorites. We may need to alternate seasons for kids, choose our favorite sports to watch – or only do the ones they excel in… I don’t know, but somehow it will all fall in to place. It has to…

If not, I’ll just be over here not drinking wine.