My Soccer Confession
Since this afternoon, when my daughter's soccer team played their final season game, I've been a bit off centered because of behavior I displayed behind the lines. What set my behavior off was an unbelievably obnoxious mother. She's one we've all seen on the field - the one who yells louder than most people would with a bullhorn. She paced up and down the field throughout the game as if she was the coach, but she's not even an assistant coach, she's just a mom with a high opinion of her self-worth to the point that she has to scream to high heaven telling the players what to do. Does she really think she's cheering them on and providing any sort of encouragement or direction? Does she not hear herself as others do, does she not see that other parents don't behave like that?
So, initially I was mum, I didn't say a word, I was biting my tongue. I was being "civil". But a father beat me to what the rest of us wanted to do. While this mother was screaming and standing in front of our seats blocking our view, a father on our team stood right behind her and screamed as loud as she did to prove a point. But what was that point? That her unpleasant behavior was disrupting our enjoyment of the game? Was he any better? I have to secretly say I was glad he did this.
But what I'm a bit regretful of is I said a few mean words in support of this dad and against this mother who continued to defend her behavior. She acted as if she was pleasantly cheering her team and we were unreasonable to quiet her down and have her stop blocking our view. She said we could have just asked her to hush her tone as if it was our fault for not reacting civilly toward her.
I realize, I did not act sportsmanly and should have just talked to the referees right away which is protocol in this type of situation. The refs are able to tell an obnoxious parent to be removed from the game if they are not acting according to civil and sportsmanly conduct. Rather than take matters into our own hands, we should have gone the righteous path. But I have to say, it was a release from the daily grind of minding our manners and not saying what's really on our minds.
Continued on the next page
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