basketball

 

I may have mentioned that we've been involved in basketball with the YMCA. J, our 9 year old, has been playing every weekend for the past 16 months while Chris has been coaching.

That's a helluva lot of months.

I was all excited about basketball last summer, I was the one who made sure we got J signed up. Then Chris volunteered to coach and he LOVES it. It has become his passion and I fully support passion but 16 months of practice once a week and never having a Saturday free to do anything and extra "practice" sessions thrown in every week has worn me down. It wouldn't be so bad if it just lasted for a season or two but it's been every damn week for almost a year and a half now.

I wanted to take a break this summer like so many other coaches and families were doing but Chris wouldn't hear of it.

So I asked him if we could take a break in November and December to have our Saturdays free to do holiday things as a family and he agreed to it.

Until he started coming up with all sorts of excuses of why he shouldn't take a break and then he encouraged our daughter, C, to sign up for basketball with the older group and then he made a bet with J that if he kept his room clean (something that has been very hard for him in the past) he would get to play next season and suddenly, not only is J signed up for basketball but so is C.

This means that not only are we NOT taking a break next season but we'll be doubling the amount of time we spend at the YMCA - 2 practice nights and up to 4 hours of games on each Saturday between now and Christmas not to mention all the extra Sunday afternoons Chris sneaks in there.

I am sincerely not happy about this; it's kind of a serious thing and it's caused a lot of sleepless nights for me.

So, I've got choices to make. I didn't want to become a couple that spends a lot of time apart, doing separate things with their free time but I really don't want to spend every single damn Saturday (and Tuesday and Wednesday nights) at the YMCA so I'm going to figure out what my passion is and see where that road leads me.

I will be there for games, I still support the kids, but during this holiday season I might miss a couple games if some holiday event is taking place at the same time and I'm going to work on my own hobbies in the evenings instead of going to practices. I just have to find the balance for my own peace of mind.