So, last night we had a great opportunity to head out to a basketball game and dinner. The girls have been asking for activities after school, and I had the day off. I had all the energy in the world to plan an outing. We decided Auntie’s B-ball game would be the ticket. The girls were excited. They love sports and had never seen a basketball game yet.
On the way in, I asked if she wanted to watch the people practice hockey. B, my hockey nut said NO, I don’t want to. I need to see basketball. A said sure we can watch, as long as we don’t miss the start of the game. So off we went to the rink first. They started to get antsy that they didn’t have skates. B informed the crowd (of east side hockey nuts) that she can certainly make that shot. Her daddy taught her how to shoot a puck.
Off we went to the gym. Now, there are SO MANY THINGS to teach children about going to a game, it is difficult to know just where to start. First, we established the rule that unless you are taller than the arms on the foosball table, you need to stand at either end as the ball girl or get a chair. One poke in the eye later, they agreed on the soundness of the ruling. Now we make it to the gym.
First rule: STOP (whole gym looks). Oops – no yelling.
Second rule: (the reason for the yelling) No walking on the court with your wet snow boots. There are lines and they have a purpose. Visitors can’t walk inside the line.
Third: No sitting on the steps in of the bleachers; no walking on the seats. Can’t tell which are steps and which are seats? Too bad. You still can’t do it.
Fourth: No eating or drinking in the gym. What? Everyone in the game is drinking – that is different. Kind of. What? Other spectators are eating in the gym. Again… sorry. Don’t know how you will learn this, but there are rules that are in place and you kind of follow them and there are rules that you have to follow. I can’t tell you how to know which is which. Good luck.
Fifth: Cheer when your team makes a basket. That basket over there. Until they switch. Then it is this basket over here. You know, the red guys. No, not maroon-ish red. What is maroon? Never mind. Cheer for Auntie.
Sixth: Yes, you can be the score girl. One trick, the score always changes. So you have to give me back the pencil and paper so I can help you. Oh yeah, and the scoreboard, it has squarish numbers, so it might be a tough task for you. Hope you are adaptable.
Seventh: There will be loud noises. There is a whistle, a buzzer, game noise and people cheering. Any of these may erupt suddenly. No I can’t warn you. No I don’t have ear plugs. Sorry. I find it annoying too. What? The buzzer is stuck? At an adaptive recreation basketball game. No, dear 2 year old, you are not the only one this is a problem for. If they could fix it, they would. Trust me.
Eighth: You may not travel commando at the B-ball game. This is true for you dear sir, on the court and you dear daughter. I am not sure how this happened, but you are still training and all the extra containment devices we can implore are important when in public. Bathroom trips scheduled on 10 minute intervals now.
Ninth: Don’t beg. I am aware that we came from day care. I am also aware that you just had dinner at 4:15pm. It is now 6. I am equally informed that you had a rice cake with nori and a juice box. We will be going to dinner soon. You are fine. Informing the fine lady with fruit snacks that you are “just so hungry and would like to try a delicious fruit” is not appropriate. No food from strangers.
Tenth: Watch the darn game from time to time. See that? See that guy who could have made the basket on his own but decided to pass to a teammate who had a 3 percent chance of making it? That is the athlete I want you to grow to become. See that girl [Auntie] who has no idea the rules of the game but she is trying anyway – that is what I want. See that guy who almost dunked. You could do that too. That was awesome.
Ok, rules established, I am pretty sure we watched a few moments of the game. We certainly had some of the game participants watching us. We learned, we laughed – it was a good time. B informed me that she was coming back tomorrow with sneakers. She needed to figure out this dribbling thing.
On the way out, we were exiting the stands and I, clearly not versed in the 10 commandments of basketball tried to step across the line, onto the court. Slam. A really, amazingly hard shove came to me from an itty bitty source. Damn toddler police. “No mama, no on the court. Mama, not for you.” Damn rules. So, game ending, new teams coming, other people leaving and suddenly I have a wrecking ball, pushing people out of her way court side so that she can leave w/o stepping inside the line. Judging by the faces, I am sure a few people got felt up and a few others were pushed a little harder than they were used to. But whew, we made it out of the court (and back to the restroom again) in one piece.
Now, we have a new talk of the town. Hockey love might just be replaced by basketball. Just maybe.
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