Before we actually became the parents of three, we heard a lot of advice/horror stories about what it was going to be like with three little ones. Some said it was easier going from two to three than from one to two. Others said the exact opposite. It must just be different for everyone. Surprise, surprise.
One analogy we received from wise parents of three summed it up, "It's going from 'man-on-man' to 'zone.'" For some reason, that made sense to me. I am, by no means, a sports expert. Although I do enjoy watching an exciting game (of nearly any sport), I do not pretend to understand the strategies. Still, thinking about the advice we were given, I wondered if any other strategies could be applied to my three boys. Sure enough, sports and parenting strategies are more similar than I thought.
Man-on-man. This worked beautifully with two. Jason took Owen, while I had my eyes on Griffin. And, we could always switch if one of us was getting owned. While Jordan is still immobile, we can still kind of rely on this strategy. Unfortunately, it isn't going to last much longer unless we find a third parent.
Zone. "You take the backyard, and I'll take the living room. 1-2-3-break!"
Passing & Moving. This is a soccer strategy, I guess, where the object is to never stand still. Keep moving. Never let the opponent set up, rest, develop their own strategy. I can clearly see how this works. Keep the boys moving, running, playing, active, thinking, and they won't have time to be anything but well-behaved, right? Unfortunately, we will ALL be exhausted, and I think their energy may outlast mine.
Switch Attack. I like this one. In the game, the switch attack is when ball is taken backward to a less well-defended area of the field to give the team time to regroup. There are definitely times that I take my parenting "backward" just to give me time to regroup, take a breath, and count to 10. You know, it's those times they watch cartoons all morning, or a movie at bedtime, or get Happy Meals for lunch, or a snack 30 minutes before dinner, or wear dirty clothes, or unmatched socks. Sometimes, going backward is the only way to go forward.
Trapping. When one boy is exercising his near-terrible-two's attitude sometimes this is necessary. Although we have to leave another open, it takes both of us to squash the tantrum out of the one. Hopefully, we'll corner him before he can "hand the ball off" to his brothers and all chaos breaks lose. That would be game over for us.
Hand off. "Here, hold Jordan," and then take off after Griffin sprinting for the street. Some day this will be more difficult when they are all too big to be contained on our hip. Although it may require some adaptation, it will stay in the playbook.
I'm sure the good teams out there could break down any strategy. Thankfully, our opponent's captain is a three-and-a-half year old, and they haven't quite figured it out yet. Although we have lost a few games, we are still the reigning champions in this house. For now at least!
No comments:
Post a Comment