Soccer Suckage

Oh, my goodness. I've been up for the past couple of hours with a sleepy, feverish (100.9 or so) kiddo who also has a stuffy nose. He finally dropped off to sleep after some Tylenol and some nose-blowing, but I guess I'll be keeping him home from school tomorrow (which is actually today).

On a different subject, can I just say I'm having all sorts of fun (not) with AYSO? So far, the parents are behaving fine at games and practices, unlike one especially unpleasant "gentleman" encountered by Lindsay of Suburban Turmoil. (Read that one for a prime example of a guy who needs a serious time-out.) First, we were locked out of our practice field at least five times. After yet again lifting my son over the fence (the coach and some parents had climbed the fence) and standing outside the gate with a few other moms, including one pregnant and one postpartum, I called the regional commissioner a third time and was given the combination to the gate lock. I thought my worries were over.

Wrong. Now I'm being slightly hounded by slightly zealous soccer moms. AYSO conducts candy sales each season and offers folks the opportunity to "buy out" if you don't want to sell candy. Frankly, since AYSO is supposed to be about youth fitness, it makes NO sense whatsoever that they push the candy sales. Why not sell wrapping paper, since we're drifting into the holiday season? Last I checked, gift wrap had zero trans fat.

My son's school conducts a fundraiser as well. The kids win prizes for selling cookie dough and other edibles; if they don't sell anything, there's no penalty. However, the way AYSO handles its fundraiser is it offers you the opportunity to "buy out" for $25 at the time of registration (and registration costs about $70). If you don't do this, you're expected to lay out $52 later for 52 candy bars -- then you sell them and presumably keep the money from sales.

Well, without going into too much detail, I had some questions about all this and was ultimately assisted by the program administrators. I thought the matter was handled, but now the team mom is contacting me, saying I owe $52 (I never received candy, so have nothing to pay for) and that I'm holding up the team pictures (?). I emailed the candy sales coordinator, and she won't email me directly or talk to the administrator I spoke with (I provided that information to her) to find out what's going on. Instead, she's putting pressure on the team mom, who's forwarding her emails to me, and I'm emailing the candy sales coordinator yet again to advise her to contact me directly if she has questions. I feel like I'm stuck in some kind of weird loop and the only thing that will break the cycle is my getting bitchy. *sigh* I hate to get bitchy. I just want to be friends with everyone.

(Pausing to see if the tiny cough I just heard from the kiddo's room will be followed by more...no. Phew.)

In a month, the candy sales silliness won't bother me. But right now it's a pain in the neck.

We are so looking into club soccer next year.