Parental decisions that puzzle me.

Today was K-'s last day of soccer.  (There's a little hooray in my heart.  A break is a nice thing.)  The last day of soccer was pizza party day.  We received 2 - 3 e-mails about it this week.  Never mind that it has been advertised that way since the very first day. 

We had one mother disgusted with her son's lack of involvement in the game.  He wasn't real into it, but soccer is apparently not his thing.  To punish his lack of involvement, she decided to get his team trophy from the coach early and not let the child participate in the pizza party or in their little ceremony to hand the trophies out. 

My heart ached for him. 

He was sitting on his ball by himself until his mother grouched at him that she got his trophy and that he needed to, "Get going."

There was another child that had food allergies to dairy, nuts and egg.  The parents were very beside themselves that an alternative food item wasn't provided for their child even though THEY knew about the party just like the rest of us did.  They hadn't made their needs known to the coach who was apparently supposed to read their minds.  The coach literally learned about the allergy while he was handing out pizza.  The girl was a regular attender.  When you walk to the soccer field we were on, you had to walk past a large sign advertising the pizza place and the fact that the trophies were sponsored by a particular company.  You would almost walk into the sign every week.  Add to that, that we received a couple of e-mails about it.  The coach is very approachable and reachable by e-mail or phone.  He wouldn't have minded the parents bringing it up to him. 

On a side note:  No, I'm not being insensitive about food allergies at all.  Quite the opposite.  If your child has food allergies and the item being served is one that will make them ill, let the host know in advance so that they have an opportunity to have an alternate safe item or just bring something yourself.  My husband's cousin does that for her son and it is no problem.  I'm sure that Janeen carries a larger purse just to accomodate safe foods to be with her at all times for her son. 

The mom was very mad at the coach and so the girl was given a bunch of candy from the concession stand to make up for the parent's lack of sharing.  The coach should not have been punished, but neither should the girl. 

IT TAKES COMMUNICATION, PEOPLE! 

K- did have a great time.  She is thrilled with her trophy and soccer is a favorite sport.  They are working on trying to secure an indoor area for soccer, but they've been having a difficult time doing so.  If they do, I believe that we'll sign up.

So, have you run into weird sports things and odd parental decisions with their kids and sports?  Do tell.

Smiles in my weekend:
-  We've taken my niece's Flat [Stanley] all around with us.  We have a photo album of pictures to send off and I think that she'll be excited.
-  We had a lovely time at the pumpkin patch yesterday.
-  Hubs mowed the lawn for one last time this year.  Because of drought conditions, he hasn't really had to mow it much at all.  In fact, it's probably been 2 months and it wasn't long.  While he did that, I pulled 3 of the 4 tomato plants we had in.  I wrestled and ended up with a driveway full of little tomatoes.  My neighbor came home to a mixing bowl of ripe and a beverage flat full of green tomatoes.  I trimmed up some herbs along the driveway and consider that portion of the clearing task done.  I still have plenty to go.
-  I made the American meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn for dinner.  Not that big of a deal, except that the meatloaf and potatoes were done in two different crock pots.  I love that I could cook the whole potatoes in water that way (never did it, never thought of it-- thanks Nora!) and they were perfect.  Hubs can't have milk in the mashed potatoes, but they were moist enough to not have to worry about extra liquid anyhow.  The skins slid right off, making mashing with the hand masher easy-peasy.  Hooray!

Have a great day!