I was a soccer dad this weekend
As a librarian, reference interactions frequently call on me to be an expert on things I might have no knowledge of. It can happen on the spot, and when it does it's a balancing act between managing expectations and doing my best to provide good information. Because of this experience, I've developed a mantra that I use with my library community, whenever I am asked something I don't know:
"I'm not sure, but we can find out together."
I find being a parent is a lot like being a librarian in this regard. My son has developed an interest in soccer which means I now also have an interest in soccer. Because it's not a sport I grew up with, I have very little practical knowledge of the game. Even so, I want to encourage him, so we spent all weekend practicing his dribbling and learning the terminology and basic technique of various ways to receive a pass (it's called a "stop" in soccer -- something I didn't know until yesterday.) We would kick the ball back and forth, and our cat Mittens would run alongside any rogue passes that got away from us.
Like any human excited about something, his vision exceeds his grasp. He wanted to try something called a "nutmeg" which is when you pass the ball or dribble it between your opponents legs (it's real -- I looked it up later.) I let him play in this sandbox a bit because I wanted to keep him interested and mitigate the feeling that we were doing "work." Eventually I made the observation that it might be hard to kick it between his opponents legs on the field, because they're all kids about his size. So we started practicing kicking it around me and picking up the dribble on the other side. There were other moments like this, where he wanted to try something absurdly beyond his ability and I humored him for a while, before gently pulling him back on track with fundamentals that I barely had any grasp on myself.
Afterward we sat on our front lawn and watched some drills on YouTube, while Mittens stretched out next to us for sun and pets. As we sat there, snuggled together in the cool grass, I quietly worried about whether or not he got what he needed from me. Did I give him good information? Was he going to be a complete train wreck at his first practice, trying things far beyond his ability?
"Dad," he said. "I had a really good time practicing with you."
That answer was good enough.
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