Too Close

My children are all 25 months apart, meaning that under other circumstances they would now be in first, third and fifth grades.  However, since we held Thing Two back a year (for myriad very good reasons) he's only a year ahead of his little sister in school, and he HATES that.  Especially since their classrooms are directly across the hall from each other this year, so he can't turn around without running into her.

To add further insult to that injury, the first and second graders are lumped together in our town's rec league sports, so the two of them play on the same soccer team and at the same level in basketball despite their two-plus year age difference and significant size difference.  Thing Two flat-out refused to play on the same basketball team as Petunia, however--apparently this was the final indignity.  ("The line must be drawn here!  This far, no further!"  Ha.)  As it happened, we were able to accommodate him because there are four basketball teams and all four practice and scrimmage in the same place at the same time at this level; Thing Two plays for the dad of a friend of his and Petunia is on my team.

Of course, as one with a bit of foresight might predict, this set us up for an even worse scenario: sister's team vs. brother's team in a scrimmage.  We dodged that bullet for the first couple of weeks, but this morning's game was sibling vs. sibling.

Given that Thing Two ended up in tears when his team lost last weekend (he has some competitiveness issues), I was not looking forward to today.  We had some serious preemptive discussions with both of them over breakfast about being good winners and good losers!  I went so far as to warn my assistant coach about the issue before the game, and he asked me if we should make sure that the other team won: I said hell no, since Thing Two won't be able to play third grade ball (it gets 'real' at that level), much less travel ball of any kind, until he gets a grip on himself.   As it happened, the score went back and forth but his team eventually won, so it ended up being a non-event.  Thankfully, although we are required to run a man defense, they were never assigned to each other--it would be OVER the first time she stole a ball from him, and she's quick!  Bullet dodged for the time being, and no winner or loser drama today: whew.

Reminded me of a Dylan Thomas quotation, actually. "It snowed last year too: I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea."  Or hot chocolate, as the case may be.