Another Good Reason for Helmets

I just screamed, “GO SAM GO! Knock him down!”

This is a little out of character for me. So much so, that my husband turned to me with one eyebrow raised and asked, “Feeling ok?”

I generally try to steer my children down a peaceful path – biting, kicking and hitting siblings with hard objects is forbidden in my house and they all listen, most of the time. Well…some of the time.

Occasionally.

The point is, I yell at them when I catch them doing it.

So what has changed to allow me to shout these words to my son? Well first of all, a helmet and heavy padding… and second – he has joined the middle school football team. He’s watched a lot of football, but never played in any sort of organized way, so I was not 100 percent in favor of this decision when he first announced it. But, he managed to talk me into it. There was a slight setback in my backing of the plan, though, when he came to my bedroom at midnight the night before the first practice.

“Mom?”

“Yes…”

“Can I borrow your computer?”

“What?!?! It’s midnight!”

“But Mom! It’s really important! I have to Google something!”

“What could you possibly have to Google at this hour?”

“Um…Football.”

Okay, when you know so little about a sport that you have to Google it before the first practice, I’m pretty sure it’s not going to turn out well.

I bit my tongue, handed over the computer and later googled "How protective are middle school football helmets?"

Last week was the first game. He looked absolutely adorable out there in his cute little outfit, although I have learned enough about being a “cool mom” to know not to tell him that. Or to call “Look Out Sweetie!” during a game. Instead, after the game I said, “Looking cool out there, Dude.” For this I was rewarded an eyeroll and a secret smile I wasn’t supposed to see.

So football has turned out to have several bonuses. First of all, with 2 hour practices every single day, he is way too tired to argue with me (most of the time) and, although he has always been kind of a picky eater, he now eats everything in sight. Even if it’s a vegetable. He has also learned some discipline, made some great friends, and, most importantly, is starting to show some serious school spirit! (This is good, seeing as his mother is the one who loves Homecoming Spirit Week so much that she wore a full blonde curly wig and a sparkly silver guitar to be Taylor Swift on Celebrity Day…)

That’s not to say I don’t still have my worries. I worry that Sam, my four-foot-eight-hasn’t-gone-through-the-middle-school-growth-spurt kid will get paired up with some huge six-foot-tall-probably-smushes-little-kids-into-his-locker kid. This brings me to my next worry that when he gets tackled for the first time there will be tears (mine). But my biggest fear, by far, is that if I don’t learn any more about this confusing sport, I’m going to make a fool of myself and ruin my cool-mom status. Oh wait – I already did: At yesterday’s game, I thought I had figured it all out – I just cheered when everyone else cheered. This worked really well… until I realized I was sitting in the other team’s section.

Guess it’s time to spend some quality time on the couch with my husband this weekend watching the NFL… Go Cubs! (I mean….err…Bears! That “C” on their helmets is so confusing.)

Hey! By the way – did you notice how many cool football terms I learned? I’ve been Googling. Don’t tell Sam – he just thinks I’m cool enough to know this crap.