One year I had missed most of the games played by my older boy's team. At the end of year banquet, which I missed as well, the other moms put a picture of me on a milk carton.
By the time the younger boy (Hunter) was playing, I was so absent that one of the mothers who ran into me somewhere said, "My son asked me if Hunter HAS a mother. And he was serious." I did show up for a few games. At one tournament, the team was down by 3 points. I had a job at home and got up to leave. The other parents were astonished that I would leave and mentioned that it was not very supportive. I told them that I had a premonition that if I left, there would be a miracle, and they would win and my kid would score the winning goal and then I would be sad that I missed it. Nobody expected them to come from behind. But they did - and my kid did get the assist on the winning goal. So everyone was happy and they made it into the championship. So I showed up. EVERY SINGLE PARENT asked me - if they are down, will you leave? I said - I had not decided. They were down by a point or two and everyone started asking me if I was going to leave. I shrugged. I didn't have any premonition...so, I sat there...and they lost. My son was peeved. Probably everyone was peeved...after that, the team and the parents wouldn't let me come to any of the games....bizarre. Luckily, I had plenty of other things to do - and my son turned out just fine.
