It's a potluck
The time for washing ice-cream-themed shorts and planning potlucks for double headers has finally come. Dust off that pencil-themed baseball bat and those hot pink cleats, because this sports season is going to be lit.
A lit spring sports season isn’t lit without a great potluck. Don’t forget to check your email for that SignUpGenius circulating around, you don’t want to be stuck with bringing the 6-foot folding table to the field that’s located a mile away from the parking lot. The common new sports parent rookie mistake is waiting 2 weeks to open up your SignUpGenius email only to find you’re stuck with the most expensive food or the 6-foot folding table. Experienced parents know to open up the emails upon receiving to snag the most coveted of all sign ups, paper plates.
That after game snack
Potlucks are for the seasoned athletes hitting middle school and high school. But the T-ball parents are not exempt from the new snack phenomenon in sports. 1980s and 1990s babies can attest to hitting up the local mom and pop ice cream shop after games with their families and friends for a scoop of Super Man ice cream. Now there’s a sign up sheet for snacks after the game as if ten minutes of jogging bases requires a granola bar and a Capri Sun.
Sliding mits and drip
It may not be just the potlucks and snack times that have gotten out of hand. There’s no need to dust off grandpa's old leather mit from the back of the shed. Little Johnny got a new baseball glove for Christmas and “it’s giving.” Between the $400 bats and $60 sliding mitts with a gingerbread vibe, your little baseball player will be dripped from head to toe.
When is too much too much?
Are the days gone of giving our kids cash for a concession hotdog or making a ham sandwich for a quick bite between double headers? Ice cream after a T-ball game isn’t as popular anymore as the snack moms have it handled with Gatorades and Oreos sign ups. Has the SignUpGenius generation gone rogue? Colton's mom has lettuce, Jaydon's mom has tomatoes, Braxtyn's mom has tortillas and the SignUpGenius list goes on and on. But who doesn’t feel bad for the dad stuck with the 50-pound, 6-foot fold-up table because Kaydyn’s mom didn’t sign up early enough and got stuck with the rag sign up. 6-foot table after 6-foot table are teams with similar mindsets, on the ready for the kids to hop off their recent game and run through that taco bar like a swarm of locusts.
But between the bling, the snacks and the potlucks, are we complicating sports for our kids? And worse yet, are we putting them up on a pedestal? As parents, I think most of us can admit we feel hurried and busy most of the time. But, how much of that are we imposing on ourselves? The perfect potluck, the newest sliding mit, when does it end? Do we need to go back to the basics of the when baseball was just, baseball? Unpopular, or maybe popular, opinion is, maybe it's time for a reset.
I think one thing every parent can agree on is, this time goes so fast. We can’t forget to enjoy the ride while we are on it. And maybe this year we keep it simple, kids really aren’t that complicated.
Play ball!
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