Sydney Speaks

Sydney (7) is my child that speaks what she thinks. (More genes I'm convinced she received from her dad!). She often surprises me because Hailey and Dallin might think it (actually I don't even think they think it) but would never say it. Yesterday at her soccer game her team was not doing so well against what I can honestly say is the best 7-8 yr. old team I've ever seen . There were 2 girls that could have played on Haileys 12U Select team. At halftime they were up by probably 10 goals and I could tell Sydney was frustrated. I tried to encouage her to go back out there in the 2nd half and work hard. She just looked at me (sort of like one of those looks like "are you stupid?") and said, "Mom, we're pathetic! We should just change our name to "The Pathetics"!". "Wow"...I said, as I tried not to laugh, "that's not a kind thing to say. If you can't change your attitude then maybe you need to go home because you're team doesn't need you with that kind of attitude." She just looked right at me and said, "I'm ready to go, let's go!" I quickly backtracked and reworked my speech to try and be more encouraging. She did go out and work hard, and even scored a goal, which changed her whole outlook on the game. In the end I had been disappointed by her attitude but quite proud of her ability to use the word "pathetic" in the correct context. How many 7 year old even know that word? (in which my brother reminded me that kids get most their word use from their parents. Geez..I wish Eric wouldn't use that word so much! ha!)

Another Syd soccer story. After Sydney's first practice this season she came home to inform me that their team was changing from the red socks they've worn in previous seasons to white socks this season. So I promptly went out and bought not one pair of white socks, but three pairs. Below is a picture of her at her first game. Imagine my surprise. After the game I asked her why she told me they were changing their sock color when clearly that wasn't the case. She said, "because I'm sick of red socks, we always wear them and I wanted to wear white." Well, at least I know she is not a conformist, but we did have to discuss the need to be in the same uniform as your teammates. We love her.