Cheering. Team building. Working together.
Having a day…you know those days where you can’t hit your stride. You’re not in a crisis. Not stressed out. Just staring at a long to do list and not getting anything done. I’m having a day.
The morning started out well…early…but good. By the way, I will NEVER be a morning person. Never. A Facebook friend left a comment for me at 5:43 a.m. I had to look at the date stamp on her comment. 5:43 a.m.?? There is no way I would ever leave a comment at 5:43 a.m. Unless, of course, I never went to bed.
But, back to the morning… Four of left the house for the pool. It’s Friday so it’s Fun Practice Day. The schedule is slightly different to Monday through Thursday. Instead of 4 age group practices the kids are broken in to bigs and littles. After each age group practices, the fun practice starts. Today was also the Pancake Pep Rally.
The entire team gathers for team building activities. I LOVE the way the coach forces the age groups to mix. If you have kids in elementary and middle school, you’ll know that kids will only associate with kids who are the same age. In most cases, the kids won’t even play with someone unless he is in the same grade. So, it is unlikely that a 3rd grader would have much to do with a 4th grader.
Except at our Friday Fun Practices. The coach has set up teams that are a mix of ages. One older teen or Junior Swim Coach. A couple of younger teens or tweens. A couple of elementary schoolers. Several very young swimmers. And each team will work together kind of like a little unit for the remainder of the swim season. Not quite a well-oiled machine…yet. But just you wait until the end of July when the older swimmers are chatting happily to the younger swimmers! Cheering each other on!
Our coach knows how to get the swimmers to work together. Even though swimming is a sport where kids work on their own goals. For instance, a swimmer may need to take off time in the breaststroke or perfect the butterfly or make a good freestyle time to get on a relay team. There’s more to swimming than personal bests and fastest times. Whatever the personal goal each member of the team works together for the good of the team.
Our overall goal is to win meets. And in order to win a meet each member of the team must work together to do the best they can in the pool. Team work. Getting to know each other. Working together for a common goal. It’s all necessary and it’s all good.
But, what does swim team have to do with the title of this blog post…nothing, absolutely nothing!
A few minutes ago, I convened one of our oh-so-necessary, but oh-so-hated “Laundry Folding Sessions.” A little bit about me, I like sorting laundry. I like washing laundry. I live the thought of having a load of darks in the washer, knowing I have a load of whites next in line. I even like transferring the wet laundry to the dryer. But, I hate folding laundry. I can leave laundry in piles for days…weeks…and not quite months.
Until I convene a Laundry Folding Session. This evening as I sorted (you know I love sorting!) each persons’ clothes and tossed them to that person, my kids were starting to lose focus. I heard “I’m tired.” “There’s too much laundry to fold!” And my personal favorite, “This isn’t mine” said by a child holding up a pair of shorts that are obviously his. And so, I quickly took control of the situation and we got it done and I said in a relieved voice “Aaaannnd, scene!”
All is well until the next load needs to be folded…
