Football Crazy. Football Mad. 4 Year Old.

We're not really a family who watches football on TV, although there is the odd match that Daddy won't miss. That said, the after school football has begun in earnest.

We went the week before last, for the first time and Aaron loved it, but there were two issues (1) he loved all the solo work they did for 3/4 of the class with a ball each, but he got a bit miffed when two teams were chasing one ball up and down the pitch, and didn't really get it (2) he felt like everyone had numbers on their back apart from him.

When reviewing the photos afterwards I could see that only about a third of the children had numbers on their backs, but off we went to the shops anyway. Because we were in a sports shop and not a Football Team store, the football shirts did not even have numbers on their backs. They'd need to be ordered for an extra TEN POUNDS....... we went away to think about it.

Well a few days later I looked in the wardrobe, and came across a H & M football shirt I'd bought in the summer for 2.99 GBP (sorry my pound sign does not work).  Because it said aged 8-10 on it I'd hung it up.

I dug it out the other day and Aaron said he loved it; both the colour, green, and the number, 10! WIN! What he didn't know was that I was rather over the moon too, as it says Ireland on it! #Result

We tried it on, and it fit - or maybe my oversized school uniform eyes tell me it does ;-) So after missing last week's football (he was too tired after his first week of full days at school), off we went.

I was so incredibly proud of him:

Even though he wasn't there the last week, the coach KNEW he was the one who did not GET the team thing a fortnight ago, so what did he do? Before he even put the 4 colours of bibs on, he picked captains. He picked Aaron as one, as he knew him (somehow) and knew that level of responsibility would get Aaron off the "bench" (literally a P.E. bench where the parents sit).

So up he went, happily put on his bib, even though we'd agreed at home he wouldn't do "this bit". The coach started from the far end, and let each Captain pick their team name. When he got to the 4th team, far left, Aaron's team, he said "what's on your shirt?" and got Aaron to name his team Ireland. It was genius. It was also no coincidence that he gave Aaron's team the green bibs.

So when they were off and running, Aaron ran up and down the pitch, tried to tackle, and just generally participated. It was a 1,000% improvement on a fortnight ago and I literally couldn't be more proud.

So these coaches, in any sport, if they know what they are doing, they can be life changing for a child, even in a matter of weeks.

I'm a very proud mum right about now:

Oh I must finish off by telling you something funny.

It's Saturday, so I should resurrect #SaidItSaturday... when we arrived at football he said "not everyone has numbers on their back". I thought "I know this" and then he followed with "I want football shoes" to which I said "But Aaron then you'll want football socks, where does it end?" To which he replied "it won't end I will then want football SHORTS!" *sigh* hides under duvet with my empty purse!!!