31 Days to Surviving Sports Seasons Sanely: Supporting One Another
We still have a lot of togetherness during sports seasons at least partially because we insist that any children who aren’t at a game or practice or other event cheer from the sidelines for the one who is playing in a game.
No matter what soccer or baseball or basketball or First Lego League (yeah, we do that too) team we’re on, we encourage our children to be for their siblings first.
Building family unity and a culture is a goal of ours. We talk about Team Garrett when cleaning the house. We read books and school together so we can build that family culture of a shared vocabulary and set of stories. We ask for and give forgiveness. We work through anger and resentments and seek peace.
Because all of our children play some sports, they understand the need to support each other. They enjoy being supported. Sometimes, when only one child is engaged in some event, it becomes easy to not require that support. It becomes easy to split into two parts where one parent keeps two children and the other go to the event. But, by and large, we enjoy being together as a family because we have fostered the notion that we support one another from the sidelines and that doing things together is better than doing them apart.
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| Be each others’ biggest cheerleaders and support! |
Oh, there are practices at the same time as games. There are times when Mommy or Daddy have another meeting and miss some or all of a game and so siblings have to go anyway. But in general, if we can do something as a whole family together, we do so. It is part of our culture.