My husband is a basketball coach. Most days it doesn't effect our rhythm too much but then there are the days when expectations become a little unrealistic.
He has a handful of Thursday night home games which just happen to be the same night that I work until 6pm. He takes the kids after school and impatiently waits for me to get off work and take over. This wouldn't be such a bad thing if he didn't have such high expectations for the children's behavior.
Our kids are 7, 6, and 3. Not the ideal sit still age by far, especially when the older two have worked hard to behave at school all day. They just aren't going to sit still. Music is going. Friends are coming in and out. It's just unrealistic to assume they will stay in one spot quietly.
Tonight I got to the game and the first thing said by my husband is, "They need to go home."
Ok.
He claims he didn't want me to have to deal with them if they were not being the best behaved but we are very different when it comes to our kids' etiquette at games. For one thing, I'm not studying anything! He's watching JV players and can't be catering to all their needs. I, on the other hand, am more free to chase and adjust and occupy.
I told him we need to figure this out because it's going to be a long season for both of us if this is how every game is going to be. I will pack books, crayons, whatever, to occupy them for an hour. We can drop them off his parents' house, worse comes to worse.
I don't want them to end up hating the game because we made it miserable to go. This is a big part of their lives now, whether they want it to be or not. Maybe that'll change but for now, they need to love it and realize that this is how we see daddy for the next three months. We all need to make some compromises.
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