When dance didn’t go the way we’d hoped for Hazeline, my husband and I went looking for a new activity. Since tutus and tap shoes weren’t for her, we decided to go a different direction – team sports. Lucky for us, not only do we live in a city that has amazing team sports for little kids, but our neighbor sponsors and coaches a 4 and under T-Ball team. It sounded perfect, and Hazeline agreed, eager for the opportunity to play on the T-Ball team with our neighbor’s son, whom she adores. I think she was also pretty excited about being able to hit something without getting into trouble, but that’s just a guess.
But the season didn’t go quite as we expected. If you find yourself in the same situation, here are three foolproof ways to get your child to love T-Ball. And by “foolproof”, I mean, maybe these will work better for you than they did for us.
Talk it up. We started talking up T-Ball before we even signed her up. As we picked up her little pink batting helmet and glove at the sporting goods store, all we could talk about was how much fun she was going to have – playing with a team, making new friends, getting to hit things…and she seemed to buy all of it. She even picked out her own bat for no other reason than it was purple. Unfortunately once the season started many of our conversations about T-Ball went a little more like this:
Hazeline: Mommy, is it T-Ball day?
Me: No, honey. No T-Ball today.
Hazeline: Yay!
Not quite the response we were hoping for, but I think we deserve partial credit for her being excited about something related to T-Ball (namely that she didn’t have to play it that day).
Bribery. Some may prefer to call this “Positive Reinforcement”. Potato, patato. Because after talking up T-Ball for what felt like an eternity, Hazeline outright refused to participate the first day of practice. I needed a little “positive reinforcement” to get her out on the field. Maybe if she tried it, she’d like it? I swear, those negotiations were much more intense than many of my mediations with insurance carriers.
Just don’t put too much on the table, too quickly. I was prepared to offer her a pony when I arrived at the field on that first day of practice. Turns out all she wanted was a chicken nugget Happy Meal. She really saved me some money on that one.
Guilt. ‘Cause sometimes it’s all you have. And honestly, it’s hard for even your preschooler to get excited about a game where they don’t keep score.
The key to this one is intensity. You know that Catholic/Jewish mom guilt that your mom (or friend’s mom) knew how to do all too well? Yeah, no need to go that far. Dial it down a bit. Just mention that she has an entire team depending on her. Again, tough for her to believe given the fact that they don’t keep score, but every now and again she bought it…other times she just didn’t care.
If you follow these 3 easy steps you too might get a picture of a halfway amused 3 year old clutching their end of the season bobble head trophy.
Maybe.
