TBall Temper Tantrum

Holy crap!  Whose bright idea was it to volunteer to be the assistant TBall Coach for my son's team?  Oh, right.  Mine.

My son is not quite 4 (his birthday is next week) and I signed him up for TBall.  I don't think it was such a good idea.  

I should have seen the trouble start during practice when Ben would throw himself on the ground and pout when another kid would get the ball.  Now mind you, before the ball was hit, Ben would be rolling around on the ground like a dog, or picking grass or spinning in a circle looking at the sky.  Like he had a prayer to get the ball!  "Pay attention, Ben", I say.  Like a broken record.  It doesn't do much good but he is enjoying himself, so I back off and work with the other kids.  TBall is supposed to be fun.

Then we have our first game last Saturday.  Ben made it through the first 2 innings (there are only 4, if your wondering) and completely shut down.  The last "play" he made was running after 2 other kids to get a ball that had gone right past him (he would have gotten it if he had been paying attention!).  One of the other kids got the ball and Ben dropped to the ground, face first and laid there for a while.  The next time I look for him, he is in center field, lying on his stomach, chin in hand, feet in the air watching the game.  Happy and content.  Ok.  Fine.  TBall is supposed to be fun.

Fast forward to tonight.  Practice again.  Within the first 5 minutes  another player runs to get a ball that Ben was trying to get.  (Are you sensing a trend here?) What happens next was one of Ben's biggest, baddest meltdowns.  He starts to cry and scream and doesn't/can't stop.  What the hell am I supposed to do?  I have 4 other kids in my group practicing catching.  And then Ben decides he is going to leave.  He starts to walk away across the football field next to the practice field.  I had to leave the practice to go retrieve him and what do you think he does?  Starts to run away from me!  Little shit.  I catch him and carry him back.  And tell him if he doesn't want to play, that is fine, but he has to sit and watch.  Then he starts to scream "I want to sit in the van.  I want to sit in the van."  Over and over and over.....  I had to work very hard at staying calm and not getting angry.  But he is obviously so exhausted he can't function, so I don't freak out on him.  I let him sit in the van.  Anything to shut him up.  

TBall is supposed to be fun?  That was NOT fun.  At least the head coach and the other parents were sympathetic.  Great.