Wait, is this our family vacation? Or just another kid's baseball tournament? 😊

It’s true…. our kids play a lot of baseball.  I mean a lot.  As summer is coming to an end, and I think about how little we were home the past 3 months due to baseball tournaments that took our children all over the country, it makes me laugh that we haven’t actually had a vacation away from baseball in years.  And I mean years.  We spend thousands of dollars a year on club baseball.  Club fees, tournament fees, traveling expenses, (hotels, airfare, rental cars, food), private lessons, showcases, new bats, new cleats, gloves, more new bats, camps, batting gloves, another pair of new cleats, uniforms, helmets, more new bats, and so forth.   It’s never-ending. And it’s been going on for nearly a decade. 

Our extended family thinks we are nuts.  Co-workers think we are nuts. And some friends do too. But here are the facts: we live in a place in this country where sports (such as baseball) are played year-round.  It is just a way of life if you have kids who strive to be better.   And when you’re in the thick of it, surrounded by all sorts of other crazy sports families who have multiple kids in club ball, going to tournaments all over the country, spending more of their free time with YOU than anyone else on the weekend, it really doesn’t feel all that crazy. AT ALL.  It actually just starts to feel normal.  Exhausting and tiresome, but normal. 

And our boys don’t know any different.  It’s their life and they love it.  They love to play, love to be with their baseball friends, and pretty much love the entire experience of baseball, in every way.

A good way to know if you are pushing your kids too hard in their sport is to see what happens when you have a weekend off. When there is no tournament for any kid in our house for an entire two or three days, it’s as if we don’t know what to do with ourselves.  “What in the world? How do we have this much time on our hands?” I just let them do their thing: sleep, lay around, watch TV, play, and just be kids.  I know it’s so important for everyone to have a little down time.  We all need it.

  It’s funny, but the one thing they always end up doing on those weekends off….is play baseball. Backyard baseball, baseball at the park, wiffle ball, pitching into the net, bad-swing baseball (that’s the best), or just plain old catch.  It has never seemed like “too much” for our boys.  And if one day they decided not to play baseball anymore, it would be sad, but we would support it. I will love them with everything I have and everything I am, whether they excel in baseball or excel in nothing.  So far, it’s just not the case.

  I always think about the journey the five of us are on. The journey we have all chosen to take together as a family.  The journey of a sports family. There are commitments that not only our kids make with the use of their time, but also that we as parents have chosen to make.  The practices 45 minutes away nearly every day of the week for years to get all three where they need to be. Sitting through long games in the heat that sometimes last all day. And well into the next day. And then poof, the weekend is over.

When I ask myself personally if I think the journey has been worth it, the answer is always so clear….

Making life-long friends? (The boys AND us as parents)

 .…worth it.

 Watching my kids understand how to deal with failure and be able to persevere until they figure out how to improve?

.… worth it.

Playing on a team? Playing on a great team?

….worth it.

 Watching them learn how to manage their time as student-athletes?

.....worth it.

 Seeing them each develop a bond with their teammates and coaches over time?

….worth it.

Winning major tournaments all over the country?

 …worth it.

Staying out of trouble? 

….TOTALLY worth it. 

Maybe when this roller coaster ride has come to an end, and there’s no more baseball to be played, maybe then we can take a family trip. Until that time comes, I honestly wouldn’t change a thing.