Sports Treats and the Junior Varsity Mom

Sports treats confuse me.  Any time my my children have sporting events, I make sure they eat breakfast or lunch or have a snack in plenty of time before the event so they have fuel, and are not sick during the activity. I don't know if my parents did the same thing for me, but we did have family meals. I don't remember going hungry. I don't remember ever having snacks after games.  I do remember one end of the season party when we won the league that included a family picnic.

Today, if you live in the Pacific Northwest, if your child plays soccer, and mine both do, parents sign up to bring post-game snacks. Parents arrive with Costco size boxes of granola bars, fruit snacks and cases of Capri-Sun or Gatorade to share after each game. I always sign up and I always scramble to bring something that my kid and other kids will eat.  Because I'm a Junior Varsity Mom, I don't always remember that it is my snack day until I see the team that plays before us snacking away as my child's team warms up.  Let me be honest, because I'm a JV Mom, I don't always deliver my child to the right play field.

If both my husband and I are at the game, and I've forgotten my snack commitment, one of us sneaks away and comes back with the treats. Problem solved.  Last fall, while my husband was in the Midwest spending some quality time with his parents, I had snack duty. When I realized that, though I had my child to her game on-time, I would soon be in trouble because I was snack-less, I was in a bit of a pinch. I weighed my options. Could I leave my son at the game with his friends and their parents while I ran to the grocery store? Would my daughter be distracted if she noticed I wasn't watching from the sidelines while I was gathering treats?

Then, wonder of wonders, my friend Leah was on the sidelines. Because she is amazing, she contacted me every other Wednesday last fall to see if I wanted to order a case of apples. The apples she orders are organic, and half the price of grocery store apples. We eat them up. Leah, whose daughter would play after mine was done, was at the field and she had my case apples in her car.

These are the actual apples--organic Honey Crisp.

She and I conferred about whether the apples would be snack enough. She assured me they would be. No drink, no sugar, no cracker crunch. I remembered my mother giving out apples and bananas, much to my horror, on Halloween and this snack seemed akin my mom's treats/tricks (you can decide how you feel about them).  Leah convinced me that my apples would be great, and if I offered them to the parents, I might just look like I had arrived prepared for this snack situation. She was onto something there.

"Honeycrisp?" Parents asked.
"Caviar of apples!" They said.

I encouraged people to take an extra apple--why not? I would have easily spent the same amount of money on crappy fruit snacks, fishy crackers and Gatorade.

"Saved by Leah," I thought.

If you think you can lobby with your team parents to do away with post game snacks because you fed your child before the game and intend to feed her a meal after the game, please give it a try.  I'm not sure the kids need a snack after each physical activity.

If you're not brave enough to broach the subject, or don't think lobbying would be successful, I encourage you to get a friend like Leah, who might have a case of apples that she picked up for you in her car just when you need them.  Or begin keeping bags of apples or oranges in your trunk for such snack emergencies.

I hear you.  C'mon Heather, mark your calendar, put an alert in your phone, and be an organized adult.  That is a viable option, too, if you're Varsity.  When you're a JV Mom, sometimes you scramble. Sometimes you lean on your friends. After enough failures, you might start using your calendar. I'll let you know how those alerts work out this spring soccer season. I'm sure they are amazingly helpful if a person remembers to set them. Details. . .

Junior Varsity Mom -- What do I Mean?

For a few years now, I've openly discussed my status as a Junior Varsity Mom with my friends and family.  What do I mean?

Maybe I can best explain what a JV Mom is by having you envision moms who are Varsity.

Varsity Moms have extra snacks and whole sets of extra clothes in their cars for the just-in-case moments. They always know what time the concert starts and where the soccer practice is. They are the moms who use planners and phone calendars. They volunteer at school, work their job, run a business on the side and still manage to have the best dressed, most involved kids at school. Some mothers move through the mom ranks and bloom into this Varsity role as their children grow.

I've had no such development.
I rock the Junior Varsity.
I can list event after event for which I am under or unprepared, despite my efforts to the contrary.

My JV status is cemented by the fact that at 12:38 pm today, I received a call.  The number indicated that it was a school call.  Twice this week, I'd received such calls from my daughter.  She has been recovering from some crummy virus and by afternoons, she is too tuckered to be in class.  When I saw that number today, February 12, I thought, "Oh no, she doesn't feel good again."

On the other end of the phone was my son.  In a sweet, patient voice, he said, "Mom, you need to come get us.  We had a half-day today."  He and his sister had waited in the pick-up zone for 20 minutes.  When they were the last, lonely, little people (they are 10 and 8), they went inside to call me.

A Junior Varsity Mom could certainly forget a half-day.
The thing is--I hadn't forgotten it.
I didn't even know it was a half-day.

Today started a little rough, with a 7:45 am work request that needed immediate attention and typical kid bickering while making breakfast. We all rallied and I felt good about getting the neighbor boys to one school, then my kids to another school, and we even remembered the Valentine's party cookies.  At moments like that I feel like I've got the Mom thing figured out, like I've done the thing that everyone seems to manage effortlessly.

When my son called, my first response was to call my husband.  We work together and he wasn't at the office, so I hoped he was on the north end of town and could stop at school and pick up the children. No luck. He was farther away than I was. As a kid, I grew up in a small town with lots of aunts and uncles and grand parents who could be called to come to the rescue.  My husband and I live in a city and do not have any family near us.  We have built a village, but we don't count on them for crisis moments.  If we know we need help, we plan for it and ask friends.  On a half-day, I usually work a swap with a friend. But I didn't make plans for the half-day because I didn't even review the school calendar for February 2016. Lesson learned.

A Varsity Mom knows to coordinate the school calendar with her work/personal calendar.  She probably syncs it with Google Docs.  Luckily, I had a morning text from the Big Sister in our family. She was adjusting the afternoon/evening plans.  The Sweetheart is watching her little brother and sister so her father and I can have a date night.  She decided that since she was going to work remotely from our house in the afternoon, she might as well watch the kids there, rather than at her apartment.  Every kid should have a 20-year-old big sister.  She really is the best! She was my next call.  Maybe she was on the way to the house.  Whew, she was, and, "Sure," she could get the kids and take them home.  She told me not to rush.  That she would get them and I could wrap up some work if I needed to do that.  I did need to do that.  Crisis averted and day saved by Big Sister!

Is the Junior Varsity Mom essence becoming clear?  Regardless of my best efforts, I don't possess the multi-tasking talents of the Varsity Moms. I might bring my child to the Girl Scout meeting at your house that starts an hour later at the church. I might sign-up to chaperone a Zoo overnight and then find I can't because my husband is out of town. I might schedule a play date for a child only to cancel because our family is double-booked as a result.

To navigate my Junior Varsity Mom talent I always find myself using the best advice I was ever given.  Remember to ask for help.  A JV Mom might not have it all together, but she will be the first person to come to your aid if you find yourself in a jam.  A JV Mom will offer to help because she has probably been in your shoes.  Some JV Moms will make Varsity.  Some watch and learn from the Varsity mentors they meet.  I'm pretty sure B-Team is my place for the duration.  I hope my limitations and imperfections teach my kids to ask for help and to be helpful.  I hope my acceptance of my strengths and my weaknesses helps my kids accept themselves similarly.

Don't get me wrong.  When I goof up, I shake my head. I think, "Other moms keep these things straight. Other moms know when the kids need rain boots. Other moms don't get text reminders from the Class Mom about camp deadlines." I think, "Why didn't I add school dates to the dry-erase calendar in the Kitchen? Clearly it needs to include more than Girl Scout and STEM Club meetings.

And then I think, "I'm the Mom these little people have, and I'm doing what I can to keep our life rolling in a positive direction." I didn't purposefully neglect my children. I just went to work thinking I would pick them up at 3:50 like always.

Today, because they had each other to lean on while they waited, I think they learned to appreciate one another more. Today, I panicked when my son called, and then I remembered that I've made so many mistakes and this one will not the the last. I remembered that I have people I can call if I need help. When I got home, I thanked the Big Sister for being available and helpful. I apologized to the little kids and we talked about how they did the exact right things by waiting and calling. They weren't upset or frightened. Of course I'm looking for the silver-lining.  Of course I want to feel like all is well.

But you know what?  We are all safe and sound. All is well. If you're a Junior Varsity Mom, breathe easy.  All is probably well in your world, too.

Until next time.  Heather, Junior Varsity Mom