There is one part of the Mom Job I really hate to see end: Kid Sports. Yesterday and today John and I spent 2 beautifully sunny days at the 4A Regional Tennis Tournament, where Aaron and his doubles partner, James played 4 matches. They did well. Next week they’ll go to the State Tournament in Salt Lake to finish the season and play their last matches. Not just their last matches, but the last ever high school sport events of our parenting lives. Sure, we hope there will be grandkids to cheer on someday, but this is the end of our Parent spectating.

Our kids have been amazing athletes from the time they were small. We’ve grown up with kids on soccer, dance, swimming, basketball, lacrosse, track and field, volleyball and tennis teams. There have been hundreds and hundreds of hours of practice and competitions. There have been car pools and after school practices, traveling to games, performances, matches and tournaments, hours spent watching in bleachers and in blankets in folding camp chairs on sidelines. There have been 1000s of photos taken with my killer sports lens. There have been dozens of quilts stitched while I watched and waited. We’ve cheered our hearts out and watched all 3 of our kids excel.

So what now? After next week, we will retire from school sports. It’s hard to believe all these teams can go on without our kids playing, but the gyms and fields and courts and halls are still full of kids and parents cheering and giving it their all. They just keep coming, year after year. Before long our kids will be fading memories in newspaper clippings and photographs and sports awards programs. The ribbons and medals and trophies will gather dust on top shelves of bookcases as they go off to college and new arenas of competition and fulfillment.

And John and I will sit at home and remember the good old days of cheering our hearts out for each of them. Maybe from time to time we’ll drop in on a high school basketball game or track meet, or a state tennis tournament, just for the fun of it. But it will never be the same. I am already feeling sad.