Soccer ended for another year today (not really, but part of it did) and again we realize that the bookish intellectuals playing Dungeons and Dragons over steaming cups of black coffee are not going to be these children of ours....we have young children who like sports and lots of them and fight hard to be good at them. I'm not sure if I'm competitve or not, I'm not sure if I'm an old softie or more of a hard-ass, and I'm not sure EVER if I'm saying or doing the right thing when she's out on the field or after a game. My daughter makes sure we know when we've upset her, which is good, I think. But I don't really know what goes on in her head and won't ever. Ultimately, I want her to have fun out there and to love her teammates and play like part of a team and to respect authority. Along the way if she wants to take some names and run up some scores, more power to her and more fun for us! I have some learning to do - I need to learn a few key parenting guidelines as we follow her lead into this game she loves. And it would really, really help if I could learn the rules of the damn sport.