We're Running Out of Time

My son, Aiden, has played baseball since he was 6.  He is now 14.  Officially, fall season ended in November, and Spring starts next week.  In reality, there has been no break, with practices 3-4 times a week, and they even played a practice game on Thursday.

Yesterday morning, one of my rare days to sleep in, I was awoken by a text telling me he was supposed to have been at practice 9 minutes earlier.  Yep, I know, and I had left a voice message for the coach the day before letting him know that Aiden wouldn’t be at practice, which apparently wasn’t checked.  You see, Aiden would be at his dad’s house for the weekend, and they had plans, and tickets, to go to a college softball game.

Right now there are some sports parents aghast that I find that to be a reasonable excuse to miss practice.  And honestly, for 8 years, he probably only missed practice less than a handful of times, only for being sick or because there was a school event he needed to attend, even when he was playing on two teams one season, because I had that attitude too.

This year, however, in the midst of him getting taller than me, needing shoes 4 sizes bigger than the year before, and figuring out what high school he would attend next year, it hit me.  We’re running out of time.  Running out of time where he is going to still want to do things with his family instead of friends.  Running out of time before he leaves for college.  Running out of time to enrich his life with things other than baseball.  Running out of time to just spend time together.

There are so many vacations we have wanted to take and haven’t because of baseball – because there wasn’t time due to the All Star season, because there wasn’t money or spare vacation days from work because he played in Cooperstown, because sometimes we don’t know the game schedule till the day before the game.  There are so many weekends with his father, who he is only with every other weekend, that were spent completely at baseball tournaments, rarely having the chance to do the other things fathers and sons like to bond over.

There are times when, though it is his passion, he gets burnt out and hates baseball.  I used to make him tough it out.  This year, we’ve missed practices and even a game to go to Disney World for a few days and refresh.

While for some families, baseball may be their whole world and they like it that way, for ours it is not. For my son it is his passion, he wants to take it as far as he can, but he still wants to be a regular kid.  I suspect there are other kids who feel the same way, and are afraid to tell their parents.

Don’t miss out on opportunities to share the rest of the world with your child.  Life, childhood, time goes by really, really fast and we can’t get any of it back or do any of it over.

Soon our kids will be all grown up.  That’s why they have wine.