Mood Swings

Between Tori, Henry, and I...life has been "fun" lately.

I'm about to totally lose it. Okay, so maybe I already have. After all, I grounded Tori for two days yesterday for eating a sucker (lest, you think I'm a horrible parent, there was more to the story and the grounding didn't stick.) But come on, I'm going crazy here.

And poor Hank. I think he was actually dissapointed that he couldn't work overtime yesterday. I think he was ready to get out of the house and away from all the mood swings going on between two preteens and a crazy mom!

For those who are curious, and haven't heard, Henry's been having a very hard time with football. He has decided he doesn't like it--he doesn't like tackeling, he doesn't like to be tackled, he doesn't like all the coaches yelling at him, and he's very inexperienced compared to some of the boys.

But he's also really very good. (I honestly don't know if I'm biased on this fact or not.)

Well, they got beat on Saturday. They got beat pretty solidly. They played a team that had at least 40 players and our team only had 16. So our boys were pretty worn out by the second quarter. Plus, it was the hottest day EVER in Terre Haute. It didn't bode well for us. And we were inexperienced and played poorly. So we got beat.

Well, after the game, Henry decided he was done. He wanted to quit football. I had asked him to keep going through the first game. He decided he did that and hated football, so wanted to quit.

I spent the whole weekend stressed, upset, and praying to know what to do. On the one hand, we had told him he could quit if he truly hated it after his first game. I would hate for him to feel like he couldn't try new things because he would be stuck if he didn't like it. But on the other hand, we didn't want him to quit just because he lost or it was hard. He has talent and the team needs him.

So it came down to a real battle on Monday. He didn't want to go and we made him. We were going to try and get there early so we could talk to the coach about the problems, but Henry made us late so we couldn't do that. I spent the entire practice being glared at and given dirty looks by Henry. But I've also never seen him play better. It was very stressful for me.

After practice was over, he said something pretty nasty to me. I told him to go over and turn in his equipment--he was done. He stared at me for a while and then started walking toward coach. Then he turned around and said he would wait until after the game on Saturday. (We are supposed to be playing a bad team.) So he stormed off to the car. I tried to talk to him on the way home and he changed to a good mood enough that when we got home and everyone asked if he quit he just said "not yet."

So I thought we were okay for a few more days. Not so. The next day he tells me again, he wants to quit. I had a mental melt down. He gathered his stuff up and Hank took him early to practice. A half hour later, he comes home and puts his stuff back on and goes back to practice.

Hank tells me the coach told him the same things I've been telling him all week, that the team needs him (they've had 3 kids quit and only have 13 now), that Henry has a lot of talent, and that practices would get better. (I think he's afraid of a mutiny.)

Hank said he did a complete turn around at practice that night. He was AWESOME! He blocked and tackled better than ever, so much so that the entire practice came to a grinding halt when they saw him tackle so good he knocked the kid on his back. He got the whole team yelling and cheering and the coaches were shocked.

When I got home from church that night, he was glowing. He came up to me and gave me a hug and thanked me for not letting him quit. He loves football and was excited. And this morning he asked if he could play next year.

YIKES!!!

I told him, one day at a time...one mood at a time...that's all I can handle.