It’s America’s pastime.
Even though I live in Canada, I’m not really a hockey fan. I don’t have a favorite team. Kids in schools ask me, “Who do you go for?” (translation: Who’s your favorite hockey team?) I always give the same response just to see the shock on their face. “I don’t watch hockey.” I usually have to pick their jaw up off the floor. After a few minutes they regain the use of their voice.
My favorite sport to play is soccer. Those hockey kids in school know this from all my days subbing in their gym class. Otherwise, baseball is where my loyalty lies. Particularly with a certain black and orange bird.
We’re now 11 days from pitchers and catchers reporting to the warm climate of Sarasota Springs, Florida. We’re also 25 days from their first spring training game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Argh…
This means we’re also not far from our friendly, family rivalry as DW and Bang are Blue Jays fans.
All this talk of baseball makes me want to compare the game of baseball with raising a family…
1. Training
It’s all about creating and moulding the best team possible. Mind you, I won’t get fired for having too many losing seasons, but I’m still responsible to do the best with what I’m given. Just as the players are responsible for improving their game, we’re responsible for being better than we were yesterday. Perhaps it’s teaching the kids a new skill they need for school or sport or life. Perhaps it’s improving ourselves to be better at whatever it is we’re trying to improve upon. We’re always striving for the next homerun…
2. Patience
There are roughly 150 pitches thrown by each team. Some crazy level of patience is needed to get through the 3+ hours it takes to deliver all 300 of them. Multiply that by 162 games per season and you’ve got 48,600 pitches to watch. When kids are throwing temper tantrums, you’re spouse isn’t paying attention, and you’re afraid your house is so messy it’ll appear on the next episode of Hoarders, you need patience. Though, unlike baseball, parenting isn’t a summer game. It’s all day, every day with no hope of winning a world series and the pay sucks.
3. Coaches
A baseball team needs lots of specialities. There are managers who oversee the whole shebang. There are also pitching coaches, hitting coaches, bench coaches, bullpen coaches, first base coaches and third base coaches. A household works much the same way. I’m the cooking coach. Not because DW can’t, but because I enjoy it more. DW is the paying bills coach. Nobody likes that position. I’m the cleaning coach because I’m home more often. DW is the snuggle coach because she’s so snugly.
4. Bases
Speaking of bases… 1st base is kissing. 2nd base has 
something to do with boobs. I’m fairly confident that you can figure out 3rd base and a homerun. Without the homerun, without “scoring”, we wouldn’t have the families we have. No kids, anyway. May you all hit homeruns tonight without gaining extra players on your team…
All In A Dad's Work 
That shirt, lol. Great comparison. And sometimes parenting v. baseball is kinda like this:
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HAHA Yes, most defintely. Sometime we lose our shit…
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Let’s go O’s!! I’m secretly still wearing my black and orange up here in Sox kingdom. Your are right about the pitches. There are days when I have crank out at least 90 on my own and the player decides to attempt a bunt on maybe a third of them. Wowza! How do we have then energy to run for home base?!? 😉
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We were young and spry back then. With no kids we were free to swing for the fences. I don’t secretly wear my black and orange in blue jay territory. I wear it proudly. I get a little flack for it, but it’s all in good fun. Sometimes it’s not the number of pitches that get us, it’s the curve balls and change ups! (I forgot to add that analogy).
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How interesting! I used to play hockey at school, but the closest to baseball in an all girl boarding school was rounders. Sorry… you can pick up your jaw now. But in rounders there is homerun too! 😉
Thank you so much for linking up with us on #FabFridayPost
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Hmm.. I’m sure there are connections between hockey and parenting. At least rounders has homeruns so you can swing for the fences 😀 Thanks for the link ups!
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