THE TRIALS OF A SOCCER MOM!

Is your son or daughter intent on becoming another Beckham? Does he or she want to be signed up on the local soccer league yesterday and have you become the family taxi service to all of the scheduled games, as well as cheering the team on from the sidelines? Before you start to call and secure your little soccer star's place on the hottest team you can locate, you might want to research all that is required of this awesome but trifling commitment. Mostly, the issues that you would want to address would be the most prominent, i.e. the cost of signing up, the equipment, and the mileage of driving your thriving soccer star from here to there and back again, the number of times practice is held and at what location, the seasons you'll be expected to stand cheering on the sidelines, and some of the adverse personalities that you may come across in the other parents.

The most expensive equipment of all that your budding soccer star will need first of all is the cleats. Sure you can get cheap ones, but, for safety and comfort, as well as appropriate fit, do you really want to punish your child by wearing poor quality cleats that could hurt his or her feet while playing game upon game throughout the season? A good pair of quality cleats will probably run you around $100! If that was all that was needed it wouldn't be so bad, but then you need shorts, the team shirt, two pairs of soccer socks, shin guards, and a soccer ball that fits the appropriate size and quality also. Still want to sign your little Beckham up? Well, next you'll need the equipment for you on the sidelines and liquid replenishment for your little one. To meet this requirement you will need a folding chair for you and one for your soccer player, an umbrella for adverse weather, and a cooler that will hold at least a gallon of water bottles which will easily be consumed in the hot summer months. That pretty much does it for the equipment, and now on to the seasons that you will have to endure while cheering on the sidelines.

The temperature can be mild in all other areas of your location, but appear to become extreme for those situated for an hour or more on the sidelines of a soccer field. From bone chilling winds that race across the fields to the burning sun that completely drains you of all your energy and fluids, especially if it is coupled with high humidity. On the summer days, you will be blessed if there is any kind of breeze, but in the heat of the summer it doesn't help if the air is hot that blows on your already burned to a crisp body. Sun block is a good thing to use, but when you attend game after game, for an hour or more at a time, if you don't tan easily you're going to look like a red rooster. In the heart of winter, layers is the answer, and even then you will need to thaw out when the game is finally over and you make it back to a warm, crackling fire for the rest of the day! Even if you do wrap up warmly, your face will be open to the freezing cold winds and accompanying below freezing temperatures and you'll know how Rudolph the Reindeer felt by the time all is done.

Finally, the last trauma you will have to endure is the mentality of some of the other parents and soccer moms. You would think that, given the manner in which they yell and scream across the field at the players, outside of their own child, there was some hidden, humongous monetary reward for the winning team and most valuable player. Not only is their inappropriate aggression directed at the players on the field, but, dare you try to match these fanatical parents, you may become a verbal outlet for their delusional, adverse support. In most instances, a good coach will talk with parents that act too outrageously, either there at the time or later in private, some try to ignore such acts of inappropriateness and hope it will go away, which it never does, but no one tolerates escalation of behavior that appears to be getting way out of hand. Sometimes it will be hard to bite your tongue and say nothing, but say nothing you must in this instance. All in all, the times spent cheering your little one on while standing or sitting on the sidelines, no matter what the weather is, will be lifetime memories that the two of you will hold on to dearly in later years, and I, personally, wouldn't trade any of these times for the world. In any event, forewarned is forearmed when it comes to these trials and tribulations faced by most soccer moms, and dads to for that matter.