Tee Ball or Not to Tee Ball?
Brad and I recently had to weigh the decision of enrolling our boys in summer tee ball. And although seeing all four of them in uniforms was almost reason enough to sign the dotted line, it was a tough decision. We are striving to be more intentional in all areas in life, tee ball included.
Brad contributed a post on Motherhood Your Way {soon to become Parenting Your Way} about our decision making discussion.
“We often make a decision without completely weighing out its potential commitments and consequences.
We nearly made one such decision this week: In my mind, every little boy plays little league baseball. It’s America’s game, right? So when I figured out that we could still get our boys on a team after missing sign-ups, I was excited! When I shared my wonderful news with Jen, she cautiously and kindly asked a few questions that changed everything…”
Read more at Motherhood Your Way…
Assuming that you can get them on one team so that you aren’t living at the field at all hours, I think you should do this. For selfish reasons ;-). I want to see pictures!
go for it! it will be fun. Its a pain paying for that many at a time (Ive got 3 playing soccer) but worth it! I would try for the same team too. We spend too many hours at the soccer field on saturday 🙂
I say go for it! little boys need to experience that kind of fun, nowadays most kids just play video games and and sits the whole day, it would be a big difference when they grow up, telling stories differently with other kids who grew up never learning how to play outside.
Same conversation going on at our house…and for the same reason Brad wrote about we’re not doing soccer, football, dance, gymnastics or a million other good things right now.
Happy Friday!
Love this. We are so in this place right now. I found you through our mutual (and sweet!) friend, Myra…so happy to have found you guys and look forward to getting to know you and your blog!
🙂
shaunna
Oh man…we’ve BTDT. Our first 4 are not quadruplets, which brings its own set of issues when there’s only 5 years from the oldest to the youngest. 🙂 We intentionally allowed only one sport per season, and we bagged T-ball early on. It’s just not enough fun, not interesting enough, not worth the huge commitment in our book. There were a few crazy years, but we have loved watching them grow through sports. It was something that we shared, as all siblings were required to be at others games (as much as possible.) That trend has continued even though only our baby girl is still at home. Her older siblings come back from college as often as possible to watch her play. They’re all 4 struggling with this as their little brothers get bigger–they are leading their own independent lives, and the little guys are just getting into what they fondly remember as ‘the fun stuff.’ We’re keeping the little guys (both 7) to the same limitations, though–there’s still only 1 of me and 2 of them.
Off to basketball practice for the dynamic duo…
Loved reading Brad’s post. My husband and I recently had the same conversation about our almost 5 year old. It seems like all the kids in his pre-k class are involved with sports. I don’t want him to “miss out” on what I feel like we should do ‘because others are doing it’……However, money is an issue and so is time. My husband feels like the time we spend at home is more rewarding. Our son is the most well adjusted, well behaved boy and we feel that is from the family time we spend together. I know there will come a day for joining a team, but at the age of 5, what is the rush??!!!
We’ve been having similar conversations about summer camp. Now at age 6, my son qualifies for mini church camp, being away for 3 nights. He says he wants to, but he’s got some special needs, and it would take some work to ready the camp. Do I want to fight that fight? Is he Ready? Am I ready? Or what about during the weeks. He qualifies for a special behavioral day camp that he wants to do, that will help him, but it means he won’t be having all pajama days watching cartoons on end, playing at parks and pools all the day away. These decisions require a ton of Prayer to discern His Will, and what is best for his/their long term Growth. Pray on!
I applaud you! Whether or not I agree with your decision (which in this case I do), I am thankful that you are taking for parenting seriously and intentionally. You are setting the course for your family by setting priorities early. You are not saying that there is anything wrong with t-ball, just that there is something “more right.” So good job guys, enjoy your carefree summer. Maybe you can find some friends and a park and play your own backyard game of t-ball one night! Now I have to go re-evalutate our family’s priorities…
We totally agree with that conclusion. Amen and amen for family time and keeping our children’s hearts as our own, instead of allowing their hearts to be won over by and primarily influenced by a coach instead of mom and dad. –LargeFamiliesOnPurpose.com