Deleted from his brain

Sam is an athlete.

Or as much of an athlete as a six year old can be.  And as often is the case with athletes, he can be very competitive.  Early on he figured out that the best way to help stave off a defeat is to play strong defense.  Now don't get me wrong, the kid likes to score, but he seems to really enjoy making sure the other team doesn't score! The other thing is he doesn't like it when people don't follow the rules. (not a bad thing to dislike) Sometimes, especially when he is tired, he has a hard time expressing his feelings or frustrations.

The other day we were at soccer practice.  Practice was going pretty good.  I had the boys running around, dribbling, passing, etc. I wanted to work on emphasizing following the ball and finishing.  We had a game the previous Saturday and did a fairly good job, but we had a hard time scoring. Every time we took the ball  to our end of the field we would dump it off and get back on defense.  No one wanted to take the ball to the goal.

So, back to practice... I set up a simple drill for the boys to dribble to a certain point, shoot at the goal and then follow the ball to make sure it went into the goal. Go back to the line and repeat.  Simple enough. Well, I forgot that 6 year olds generally don't like to stand in line waiting their turn again.  I should have known this...Coaching rule 101 keep things moving and engage everyone.  A couple of the boys would race back to the starting point and cut in line.  Coach (me) didn't notice this.  Sam on the other hand, did notice because everyone was cutting in front of him.  Since I didn't see the infractions, I didn't do anything about it.  Unfortunately, Sam (already tired from a long day of school and practicing in the100 degree heat) got frustrated and decided to take matters into his own hands.  He started to yell and kick at some of his team mates.  Well, this did get the coach's attention.  And got Sam into trouble.  I got him away from the situation and explained to him that we don't kick or start fights with others, especially our team mates.  I also had him do something else for a minute to cool down.

The rest of the practice was great... lots of running, games and a short scrimmage.

After practice, I said something to Sam about his actions and how they took me away from the rest of the team.  It was unfair to the other players and basically, I wasn't going to put up with that kind of behavior.  Typical dad lecture that we all had and we all probably hated.

During this "lecture" I asked Sam, "Did you hear what I said?" "Do you understand why I am frustrated?"...

Sam - no reply. He just continued to dribble his soccer ball.

Me, getting frustrated - "Hello!?! Are you listening to me?"

Sam without missing a beat, "Yeah.I understand."

Me - "So why didn't you answer me?"

Sam -  "I DELETED it from my brain."

At that I lost it.

I totally lost it.

I mean ABSOLUTELY LOST IT!

I started laughing. and I laughed. and I laughed. I laughed so hard I had tears rolling down my face.  What 6 year old says "I deleted it from my brain"?  So, needless to say, my frustrations were quickly forgotten.

I hugged him. Then kicked his ball away from him and raced him back to the car.

He deleted it from his brain?  Man, how I wish I could delete things from my brain so easily...