A Volleyball Lesson

Lily's team played last Tuesday and they won, but the win wasn't pretty. The coach put them through a pretty tough practice on Wednesday (rightfully so). And, on Thursday they lost to a team they beat previously in the season. It was a close match with 5 games and the final game's score was 15-11. It was disappointing for all involved. Although the team lost, Lily played her best game ever. 

Lily had been suffering from allergies during the week---stuffy nose, sore throat, and headaches. So, she wasn't feeling well and wasn't too excited about the prospect of practice on Friday. She knew it would probably be another hard workout. 

On Friday, I checked her out early to go to the May Day performance at Shelly's school to see her dance. But, I did this with the understanding that I would take her back to her school for practice. I knew she wasn't feeling great and  she wasn't looking forward to practice, but I also knew it was the right thing to do. I think she may have even thought that I might cave and allow her to skip the practice. But, they have their toughest opponent to face for their last game on Monday and that practice was important.

After the program we headed back to the middle school. It was a very quiet ride and I kept telling myself---Stay Strong, Karol! It's hard to make your kids do the things they don't want to do, but as the mom, I knew I had to stay strong and stick to my guns. 

I dropped her off and told her, "I love you. Have a great practice. And, I know you're not happy with me, but I accept that". Isn't that the bottom line of parenting? We teach our children how to face the difficult stuff and we know that they won't always be happy about it. And, that's okay. It's okay to accept that they aren't always thrilled with our decisions.

But, the even bigger lesson in this story is that after she got home from practice, she was laughing and talking and she even slightly admitted that she had done the right thing. And doing the right thing feels good.

Poster for their last home game made by her "little sister"