Here we go again...

[mereilin]

Remember the baseball fiasco? Well, it's time to register for the next season and Danny says he wants to play baseball. This puts me in a very uncomfortable position: do I go ahead and register, pretend nothing happened and hope for the best? Or do I send the letter I've been sitting on for seven months (with edits now that time and the initial emotional turmoil have passed) and hope it doesn't prejudice the league against us? Or do I talk him into some other activity?

I spent a couple of hours yesterday rereading and revising the Letter. If I confine my complaints to the frustration, confusion and annoyance I had to deal with just to get him assigned to a team, the letter is already a page and a half long. If I want to also talk about all the problems we had with the coach -- which I'm loath to leave out because as far as I'm concerned that was the most distressing aspect of the entire season -- it's another full page.

It's worth mentioning that I deleted about four pages of vitriolic rage to end up with these three pages of calm, rational concern.

The trouble is that when I think about sending it, my brain skips ahead to wonder what comes next. Will the league president ask the coach for his point of view? I would, if I were the league president. Will we be red-flagged as troublemakers? Might someone act in retribution, making this season even worse than the one before? Do I really want to put myself in an adversarial position at the outset?

And perhaps most important of all, I'm not sure what the point would be -- by which I mean there's no definite goal or demand that I can even think of stating. So why bother, really?

Unless he really wants to play baseball, because with his father's work schedule, I'm going to be the one taking him to practices and games, and dealing with the league and the coach. Again.

Argh.

Comments

[iilii.livejournal.com]

Personally, I don't think I'd send the letter. As you say, 7 months have passed since the problems occurred and I don't know if you would do anything but bring up bad blood by sending the letter with all old information. Especially if there isn't anything you actually want them to do for you that would make it better. At this point, they'd probably just view you as a crackpot and not take your complaints seriously.

You may or may not want to Danny to continue with baseball this year. He is another year older and hopefully at least a little more mature. You will have to weigh the pros and cons of Danny's love for baseball vs. your difficulty in dealing with the coach, etc. As they say, forewarned is forearmed, though, and you can deal with problems with the coach right away because you'll know what to expect.

Or you might just want to send Danny to another activity or sport, if you don't want to deal with the coach anymore. Carrying around anger against him hurts you more than it hurts him.

[mereilin.livejournal.com]

Sometimes just writing it down makes the answer obvious, huh? Thanks for the very sensible advice. :)

[iilii.livejournal.com]

Good luck. :) I can only imagine how tough it is to make choices for a kid you both want to protect and want to see grow.