Mother and Son Dodge Ball Night

Tonight was the Mother and Son Dodge Ball Night at Aj's school.
Ki was of course very disappointed that this did not include daughters, as the Father and Daughter dance was not to her liking and she did not attend.

Aj has been excited all week. Tonight when it was time to go he held my hand and walked me out to the car. We got there and the event was held in MUB, or gym. Lots of lights, loud noise and sugary soda and sweets. It was then that it occurred to me that this could be a real nightmare. Instead of flying under the radar and kinda blending in-he could totally expose himself as a "weird kid" to a very large audience. If he got frustrated by the game and had a screaming, crying, angry raging fit inside the gym-it would be ugly.
The games had kids and Moms divided by grades. Then teams were randomly divided with boys and their Mom's on the same team. In the first 2 games Aj immediately charged to the front to get a ball and was quickly tagged out. He wandered outside, but in general he kept it together and there was no raging, just some encouraging on my part. I, however, remembered my grade-school strategy of staying in the far back of the court-so both of the games I was one of the last 2 or 3 people left. I then took Aj aside and asked him if he wanted to know my secret for staying in the game a long time. I shared it with him and the third game was much more fun for him. The last game was sons against Mom's. The look of attack on the those little boys faces was quite daunting. I got out quickly in the game when some ball flew in and bounced off my shoulder. Drat! Aj got out just after me. As we walked to the car he had some tears of frustration, but he pulled it together before we got to the car. I was proud of him. We both had a really good time.
Note: Cost was $25.00 per Mother/son couple and included pizza, salad (donated by some families), drinks, and dessert (also donated by some families). Each "couple" got a goody bag, lollipop and candy for the boys and a single rose for the Mom (Mother's Day is in 2 days). Good fund raiser for the school.