Boys and Sports

As a nanny for four boys (insert gasp here), I have seen a lot when it comes to sports. The drama, the highs the lows and the goofiness. I am personally very partial to goofiness. When you watch children play sports you can learn a whole lot about them (and their parents). The oldest boy I watch is a very serious fellow for eight years old. Shawn began being interested in "serious" at the age of three. I recall hearing from the back seat of the car a tiny voice saying look! look! it's the "serious" tower (we live in Chicago). When it comes to sports he is focused. Shawn plays baseball, football and soccer.

When playing baseball in a season that seemed to drag on longer than three summers, Shawn summed up his sports personality with one sentence. It was a beautiful summer afternoon and one of his buddies from the team was over . Both boys were fully dressed in professional looking uniforms, I was helping tie shoes. The big game of the day would decide if the boys would go on to the playoffs or end the season. Buddy asks Shawn "what if we lose?" Shawn replies in a serious and frustrated voice "Then the seasons over...and your career is over!". I could not contain my laughter.
Shawn is the oldest and next in line at five years old is Jack. When it comes to sports Jack is not really as serious. When the at the doctors office recently the doctor asked him "Do you like sports too Jack?" his response was simple "No not really, I want to be an astronaut". Jack is the most physical of the four brothers but he prefers to use his physicality for comedy. This boy has an imagination you would not believe and he thinks of sports as mostly a series of well planned costumes. Jack was on his way to a Cubs game with his dad one day. He rushed upstairs to put on his "special Cubs outfit". Dad was waiting outside when Jack came down proudly wearing his dress pants, a button down and a perfectly placed clip on tie. The ticket taker at the stadium was impressed. Jack's sports style in this case is a bit more literal or business casual.

As for the younger two, twins (age three) sports skills and personalities are just beginning to develop...or not. One of the twins is a sports genius of some sort he is already dribbling a basketball, hitting line drives and throwing farther than seems possible with such a tiny arm. The other a glorious prince of goofiness pretends daily that he is a kitty cat.