Today was a tough day. My 4th grade daughter, PickyKidPix, has been on pins and needles all week waiting to find out if she made the new Club Soccer Team for our town. She didn’t. She made the wait list which is not bad because strangely, her grade district wide has produced an exceptional number of really excellent 4th grade girl soccer players. This still meant that I found her at 10:41 p.m. sobbing her heart out. Ouch! Not to mention that her bedtime is 9:00 and it was a school day the next day.

Life is full of disappointments and her problem is that she is teeny, tiny like me. Most of her peers have 50% more weight on them and at least 12+ inches. At this age, it means they kick harder yet also have the same foot skills and speed that she does. And some of her peers (including some of her friends) are better at this age.

So we had a little pep talk. She discounts anything I say in general because 1) I am her mom, 2) she is the rebellious middle child, and 3) I don’t play soccer. But the pep talk went like this:

Me: If you want to make the team next year, you just have to get better than everyone else. You will have to work harder than everyone else to develop better foot skills because you are at a size disadvantage which is my fault because you are small like me.

Her (sobbing): But everyone else will improve too because they will play more than me. It’s not your fault Mommy.

Me: You just have to get better. Let’s come up with a plan. Are you willing to work harder because I will hire a coach to help you?

Her (very determined and now blowing her nose loudly): YES!

The rest of the post ishere.