Keeping Up With the Joneses

Sports Mom and I got into a discussion yesterday about the pressure (especially here in the DMV) to keep up with the Joneses. One of R's hockey teammates is training 3 mornings a week right now during the offseason whereas we're maybe getting in a session a week. Don't get me wrong, we'd love to do more, but changes in my work schedule have made morning sessions all but impossible, and while we've been able to score some afternoon sessions, it's been largely hit or miss. Sports Mom was frustrated that R's teammate might now pass him up because he's able to do more than R is. This is a touchy issue in our household because R splits time between being a skater and a goalie. Because of this, he's getting less goalie time than the full-time goalies, and less ice-time than the full-time skaters, so while he's good at both, he's losing ground in both areas. Now if he's getting out-trained on top of this, there's a legitimate fear that the gap between R and his teammates will increase. It's an easy trap to fall into, and even as we try to "be cool" about things, this isn't the first time we've caught ourselves playing this game of keeping up with the Joneses. We ultimately reminded ourselves that R is still only 9 and that we don't need to burn him out on sports just because his peers are. If we get to a point where he's setting his own alarm to wake up at 5 every day and begging to get on the ice, that's different. Happily, we're not there yet.