As the 2024 season winds down, I've been seeing a lot of social media posts from families who have kids graduating from Little League; parents have been sharing feelings of gratitude towards their Little League community, optimism about the future, and sadness that "it's over." These posts got me thinking about something friends of ours said to us last year.

I've been coaching in this community full-time for 20 years, which means that some of the kids I first coached are now in their 30s with families of their own. YIKES!

It also means that those Little League parents I became friends with back then are in a totally different stage of their lives; empty nesters, soon to be going to their grandkids tee ball games.

One family we became particularly close with and remain good friends to this day (my wife and I coached/tutored all 3 of their kids, who are all now in their late 20s and early 30s), invited us to a Dodgers game with them last season. Their invite was last minute so as they headed over to pick us up, my wife and I started to frantically do our best to quickly clean up the house to make it semi-presentable to guests.

After a few minutes of jamming backpacks into closests and putting kids toys back where they belong, our friends arrived before we could tidy up the area by our front door. There were baseball cleats, and shin guards, dirty socks, scooters, basketballs, and water bottles everywhere on the porch - maybe it looked like your front door after a Saturday full of kid's sports.

While my wife and I were apologizing for the mess, they said something I'll never forget:

"Awwwwww, I really miss the days of my kid's sports crap being strewn all over the house."

Ooooof.

Here we were embarrassed by the mess our kids made, and here they were, longing for the days when their kids were coming and going from sports every day, leaving their dirty uniforms and smelly shoes everywhere.

That sentence immediately reminded me to do something that, in the midst of the complete chaos of raising kids, can be easily lost: stay present and enjoy the experience...the good, the bad, and the messy!

As I read all the posts of parents saying "goodbye" to Little League, I couldn't help but think of our friend's comment about our mess.

Little League will end. AYSO will end. PVYBL will end. Flag Football will end.

And while it's absolutely normal to be sad when something ends that we all love, it's also a sober reminder for those of us lucky enough to STILL be in it, to make sure we're enjoying every moment.

Can you imagine looking back at Little League once it's over and wishing you hadn't yelled at the umps so much from the stands?

Can you imagine looking back and wishing you hadn't put so much pressure on your kid?

Can you imagine looking back and wishing you had spent more time just enjoying watching your kids play and less time worrying about what position they were playing, they're batting average, or if they made the All-Star team?

I know when we're "in it" that it can be hard to maintain perspective. Every time I get after my kids for not getting dressed quickly for school or not taking their dishes to the sink, I feel a pinch of regret. There are rules and expectations in our house and while my wife and I would never let our kids just do whatever they want all the time, I know there will be a day when I'm actually going to miss them ignoring me or not cleaning their plate without acting like the world is ending.

So while our friends embraced our mess with nostalgia, and while I'm not going to stop getting after my kids when they need it, I am trying to simultaneously enjoy that experience as much as all the fun ones.

I know how frustrating it can be to watch your ballplayer not be down and ready or forget to back up a base or swing at a bad pitch, but instead of approaching youth sports with an intensity that is disproportionate to our kid's level of play, experience, and maturity, let's just try to take a step back and enjoy the ride. Embrace the chaos. Have fun just watching them play.

Because sooner than we want to believe, their athletic careers are going to end. We won't have any more games to drive them to. We won't have any more rushed fast-food dinners in the car coming home from a late practice. We won't have any more whiffleballs in our living rooms. That's a 100% certainty.

What's not certain is the way we as parents feel about it while it's happening and when it's all over.

The good news for those of us who haven't graduated from Little League yet is that there's still time to soak in every minute and to see the good plays AND bad days through the same lens that our friends saw our messy front porch.

Someday it will end and we'll be sad, so let's enjoy every single moment of our kid's youth sports journey...before it's too late.

Play Hard, Have Fun!