I feel good when you hug me!

“I feel good when you hug me because hugs make me feel happy.  I would like for you to hug me every day.”

This was said proudly by a participant at my practice this past Monday.  But how right is that girl?  I mean, who doesn’t feel good when they get a hug?  Wonderful, that is what these girls are. 

Monday: What a day, phew.  I mean, five girls parents called and messaged me that their daughters couldn’t make it to practice due mostly to health reasons. I have noticed when we are missing one member how the girls seem a little more out of sorts but you should have seen these kids when half their team was missing.  They really have bonded and it was like they were missing a part of their family.  Its only been 6 weeks, two times a week at one hour and fifteen minutes a day and already these girls are super bonded.  Though I will admit that I missed the girls myself and was bummed for so many of them being gone. 

So, Wednesday, came again and as seems to be ritual we got rain. Now, I was actually debating if it was just misty taking the girls outside for at least a little bit.  Honestly, just ten minutes-except I just had five girls out on Monday, the last thing I wanted was to make anyone else sick.  And well…it wasn’t just misting as I pulled up to the school…late.  There, I admit it, I was late for the first time ever to a practice.  I had made the fatal error of only giving myself 30 minutes to make the 15 minute drive and it ended up taking nearly 45 minutes. 

So I feel like I say this all the time, how much I like a lesson, but really, I feel like as adults we could all learn just as much as these girls do from these lessons.  I mean, who gossips?  I know I have been guilty of it.  Shoot, let me make this my public apology right now, if I have ever hurt you with my words in the past by gossiping about you, I am sorry.  I honestly didn’t intend to hurt you because if I had I wouldn’t have been saying such mean things behind your back where I hoped you would never hear them. 

We have all done it and you should have seen the girls’ reactions when the assistant coach and I told them, that we are guilty of such a treacherous act towards people we know.  Now, I will say, I have a hard time believing the assistant coach could ever say a mean thing about another human being in her life. But hey, at least she didn’t leave me hanging when I admitted to the girls that I make mistakes. 

And does anyone know why I did that?  Why did I admit a flaw when I as the adult am supposed to set an example?  Because it’s unrealistic to teach kids that they need to be perfect.  Yepperooni, I said it-they can’t be perfect and your expectations are unrealistic if you think that you should expect perfection from your child.  You should only expect that they do their absolute best.  Did you know that we aren’t perfect as adults?    

The girls are smart though, they asked us, “If you aren’t supposed to gossip, but everyone has done it, what do you do?”  And here’s what we told them.  You apologize through your actions and words.  You try your best to make things right and hope that the person who was the target of your gossip is not hurt too badly for too long and that they can see it in their heart to forgive you.  The girls really almost seemed relieved I think when they realized we don’t expect that they will be perfect.

And then we let the madness ensue.  What happens when you had a dozen little girls a pile of newspapers, scissors, a scavenger hunt list and say to them-“have some fun”?  I tell you what, they have fun.  To the wonderful teacher who lets us use her classroom every week, I am glad you were not in there Wednesday afternoon!  Those girls covered the entire floor in newspapers, clippings, pictures, shoes, books, ….shoes?  Oh lord, half the kids even took their shoes off. But you know what; it was a really fun practice.  And after all these serious talks we have had, it was a much needed bit of fun.