Pleasing a Child

Despite my determination to never be the mother of a football player, I was overruled and my six-year-old became a football player. For the record, it was flag football and it was called a "football camp" on the registration forms and fliers.

We decided to sign our son up for this football camp. It met for 70 minutes a week for six weeks. To say my husband and I were disappointed in the camp was an understatement. It was really 20 five- and six-year-olds wearing flags and running around a field chasing after whoever had the ball. The flier and website both advertised it as a way to learn the basics of football, the rules, and technique. Well, this didn't happen.

Today was the last day of camp, a "scrimmage" against the Lancaster/New Holland team. With 20 kids on the team playing five kids at a time, playing time was minimal.

After the game, every kid received a certificate of participation. My son was so proud of his certificate. I looked at it and saw a red piece of card stock picked up straight from a copier. There were no names on it, no signatures. It was a let down to me, but to him it was the best thing I the world.

My son was thrilled by the whole flag football experience. He was excited to be around people and to be around football. He enjoyed it every week. My husband and I were careful not to talk about our negative thoughts in front of him. We did not want to cloud his judgment of the game or the camp.

My six-year-old was pleased. My husband and I were not. The difference was our expectations. All Andrew wanted was a fun time and some recognition of having done something. We expected more.

(By the way, despite meeting my son's expectations, my husband and I write the checks and we will not be writing one to this group again.)

How many times do we set our expectations too high? How often do we set ourselves up for disappointment because of those too high expectations? I know I have been challenged to try to set realistic expectations in order to have a more positive outlook on life.