A Bad Seat

I went to watch my little cousin play basketball today. She is eight years old, in third grade. This was big time basketball folks!

I, of course, went over to sit with her father during the game. Minutes before tip-off, her grandmother walked in and joined us. I was told this does not happen often. They usually sit on opposite sides of the gym. Apparently I was the uniting force here! Not a good thing to be! Never, I mean never, sit between a mother-in-law and a son-in-law. There is absolutely no way it will go well!

Take a moment to close your eyes and picture the most extreme parent at a biddy basketball game. Now envision the grandmother who lives in a fantasy world where all the children hold hands and sing cumbaya. I was sitting between them! Each time either of them opened their mouth, the other shot daggers through me to get the archenemy. When they had disagreements, which occurred much more frequently than baskets made, they both looked to me to support their point of view. What was I to do? In all honesty, I didn't agree with either of them. The extremist father who expects 8 year olds to play flawless basketball is absurd. And the la-la land grandmother who gets upset over one girl taking the ball from another because it isn't polite is certainly not getting my appraisal. So, I did what any normal, open-minded individual would do, I sat there and stared straight ahead, acknowledging neither of them.

Sadly, I could not wait until the game was over so I could talk to the only sane person I knew in that gym, my 8 year old cousin. She enjoys basketball, and she really enjoys the lollipops her coach gives her after each game. She doesn't like that her team lost, but she still had fun in the game. She thinks it is pretty cool that she wears the same number I did when I played, 22.

I hope that I have a happy balance when I have children that play basketball. This whole scene makes me wonder how Jeff will handle it. He has trouble watching bad basketball, and when kids are just learning, it is bad. There is no way around it. Even if he is the extremist father, I know I won't have the delusional grandmother on the other side! That will make it somewhat more bearable!