What was supposed to be the best day of his life, turned out not-so great after all.

This was it! For the first time in his life and after one hell of a long wait, my almost five year old son got to attend his very first Rugby practice today. He was ready, overly excited and could not stop smiling when we pulled into the school yard this afternoon. Like a big boy, he ran over to his "team" and introduced himself to the coach (who isn't a coach by the way, just one of the parents at school who volunteered to be one). Perhaps he looked too excited for the "coach's" liking because he never even bothered to greet him back. Anyways, I thought it was just tough love so I proceeded to help my 7year old look for his own team as well before taking a seat next to the field as a spectator.

I'm all for boys should be tough and all and I know very well that Rugby is a sport where discipline and strategy is very important. I am not the type of mother who whines about petty shit and I am also not the type who believes that everybody else is wrong and only my children is right, but what I experienced today had me hot under the collar.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but to me, the first practice of anything for a 4 year old is not common knowledge. It's something new to them and that's what they are there for: to learn! Obviously, you can not expect 4 year old's to have the same ball sense and skills as you would expect from 7 or 8 year old's, but this "coach" made my blood boil.

As I sat next to the field watching, I could not see any coaching happening.

"Stand on the line!!!" he shouted. Well I'm not 4 years old and far from it, but I couldn't even see the line he wanted them to stand on. None of the boys could do anything right and I'm sorry, but you have to be clear and quick with little ones if you want them to stand still. He was irritated because they could not stand still where he wanted them to stand and he did not explain to them what they are about to do. My mouth hung open as he roughly pushed them around, intimidating them with his big voice and whenever they couldn't catch the ball or let it slip out their hands, he threw his arms around, yelling at them about their incompetence.

Look how tiny they all are, being pushed around by a big old bully!

It wasn't fun to watch and needless to say, my son wasn't very impressed with rugby practice either. I think we expected something very different, especially for a first time.

As if it couldn't get worse, my 7 year old didn't have a great time either. Because he grew up in the Middle East and started school very young, he is now the only 7 year old student who is already in Grade 3. There had been much debate because of his age after I had to inform 4 coaches that he is 7, and they still had him practice with the 6 year old's just because they are too ignorant to accept that he is 7. I was there the day he was born, so I guess I know his age best. I guess I'll just have to tape his birth certificate to his backside next time so that the show could go on!

The point of my rant:

Amazing how a single person or something as simple as a number can prevent a child from making good memories and loving the experience of something very new to them!

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