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I surprised the family with tennis racquets for all 4 of us for Christmas.
I had tennis lessons for a couple of years in late primary school & one thing my family used to do for fun was take our racquets down to the local primary school on a Sunday afternoon & hit a tennis ball around between us. None of us were actually good at tennis (although my brother Jesse was on a tv commercial with a professional tennis player in the 80s, so that kinda makes him a bit of an expert), but it was an activity that got us moving & laughing together. I just used to love seeing my parents have fun with us. Dad used to get right into it.
So today we hired a court & the girls played their first tennis. We gave them a few tips about the different strokes etc & they were excited about trying something new.
They soon realised that actually hitting the ball over the net and getting a game going was a lot harder than they had expected. Anouk got quite down at one point, stating that she was terrible at tennis. Which opened up the opportunity for lots of encouragement that they can’t expect to be great at something on their first try and as long as they don’t give up, they’ll get a little better each time. Pete & I took turns holding baby Estelle in the shade, while the other played in the heat with the kids. They’d take breaks then go back and with each session, the girls got better. Their confidence grew and they had a lot of fun. Every time we introduce them to something new, it’s a chance to show them that in order to experience the joy, they have to jump in, start somewhere and persist.
