Saturday, May 19, 2007

Karma Bites Me in the Ass, Sort of...

In a flash of age-related forgetfulness, I missed the Volunteer sign-up for the Warrior Princess's swim team. Everyone must sign up or you don't get to come back next season (or so they say). In all the years WP has swam, I have never shirked my duty. This time, as one of the slackers, I was randomly assigned to The Snack Bar. Yuck and double Yuck! I ran the football stadium snack bar while FPM played HS football. It was fun at the time, but really hard work and I was glad it was over.

I must admit sheepishly, that I was tempted to call back the swim snack bar lady and lie and say I wouldn't be attending this meet. No Way could I ever really do that (catholic upbringing?).

I showed up and worked my shift. Know what? It wasn't so bad. There were enough people that I was able to run over and watch WP swim her races. I worked my shift and stayed to help them dismantle. I remembered why I did this in the first place (swim team is time consuming). She loves the sport. When the boys were young I logged countless hours driving to practices, clinics, games, tournaments and lessons for baseball, basketball, soccer and football. I'm certainly not inclined to do any less for the girl! I also signed her up for an instructional water polo league later this summer. The new HS opening up in our town this fall will have a pool, so she could play water polo in HS if she wants (in 3 years).

I missed the sign-ups, felt like I got screwed with snack bar duty, knew it was my own damn fault, and was mad at myself, but the final result turned out just fine. WP swam well and she is now tired (always a plus). I was reminded why everyone needs to pull together and do the work, even the horrifying snack bar work. We do it for our children. Eventually they really do appreciate it.

17 comments:

JoJo said...

Kudos to you for pitching in and supporting your kids!!! :D

l'oreal said...

ah swimming. i remember in high school how bad i wanted to be on the swim team. i couldn't however... i lived on my own and worked close to full time and had no time for it :P. It's great you're so supportive!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a hard duty and you're a great mom for caring so much for your kids. Hope the water is clear soon for you.

Rose

xo

ann said...

ah the joys of motherhood, but we wouldn't have it any other way

Jane said...

Way to go Mom!!

Water Polo....That sounds like fun :)

The Rev. Dr. Kate said...

I guess its a good thing none of us read the fine print in the "mother contract." Mine lot in parenthood seems to be stuck between selling raffle tickets and making the phone calls when the game is rained out!

Anonymous said...

Snack bar duty sounds like something this gormand would enjoy.
Hey, the answer is posted as to the answer of the word challenge.
I am under the gun this week but I really want to read your penultimate post, about the Ming Dynasty and fuzz-very intriguing (sp?) Hope your week goes better than mine is looking as of now :)

Jocelyn said...

There must be side benefits to working the snack bar...like lots of free food?

You're a good, if acting-out-of-guilt, person.

Axe said...

So very true, C!
I'm sure my kids also appreciate what I do for them...**I hope**

In the end, I guess that is what makes it all worth it.

val said...

Glad you all had a good time.

Course, I'd rather stick pins in my eyes!

Anonymous said...

you're a good mom. but then... you knew that! ; )

my sister and i both swam on teams as youngsters, she was so good she continued to compete throughout high school and college -- she also did a little synchronized swimming, which was a lot of fun to watch. i think it's an underrated sport, and i salute you for encouraging your daughter to be involved! xox

Claire said...

Jojo- hey, you'd do no less for the furchildren, right?

L'oreal- Aw, you are the same age as my boys. I wanna adopt you!

Rose- Your writing makes me think too much!

Ann- no indeed.

Tess- she loves it!

K+- ug! Phone call duty, definitely worse than snack bar as far as I'm concerned!

Wreckless- School is almost out. These last days are a breeze. Hope things settle down for you!

Claire said...

Jocelyn- for sure! (I AM NOT a guilty person! -ah, sorry for yelling like that) :)

Axe- so nice of you to drop by. Yes, I do think they appreciate it when they get older, at least past the teenage angst stage. For me, it's 2 down- 1 to go!

Val- geez don't use that metaphor, it gives me the heeby-geebies!

Neva- Hi! thanks for visiting. Yes water polo is fan-flippin-tastic. The WP is definitely an endurance swimmer rather than a sprinter, so she really likes it.

G said...

Ah, I do the snack table at Tali's violin school. It's a lot of work as committed volunteers are few and a good bit of it has fallen on my shoulders. But I stick with it for the same reason - the kids. If they didn't have this, it would be a lot less fun on their full day of music school.

Good for you and good your daughter.

Malnurtured Snay said...

You wanted to sign up so you could keep your Warrior Princess from completely pummeling her teammates into the pavement at the bottom of the pool? ;)

kris said...

good for you! i am just beginning this journey of sports, with 5yo in t-ball last year, and 7yo had his last soccer game monday. so far the most we've had to do is put up with a not so hot coach and sell fund raisers....

robkroese said...

I'm training my kids to be completely unathletic like me, so I won't have to do this kind of thing.