Another dilemma in our household led to this week’s blog topic.

My 11-year-old son’s basketball season ended last weekend and the team party is next week. It’s not an elaborate banquet, but rather just a pizza party that will take place at the gym where we just hung out for what sometimes felt like half the winter.

On the same night as the party is his fourth flag football practice of the spring season, and just the second practice he is able to attend due to conflicts with late-season basketball games. Thanks to Mother Nature, there have been very few practices, and the one scheduled on the night of the party is the final one before the first regular-season game.

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My son really wants to go to the team party, but also is old enough to realize the importance of not missing another practice, and especially the one before the first game.

So what should he do? And what should we as his parents allow him to do?

If he had been to all the other practices at this point and this conflicting practice was not right before the first game, I’d consider letting him go to the party. But that’s not the case.

Basketball season is over as far as official games go, and therefore any decisions about missing flag football practices should be made with the best interest of the next season’s team in mind. It’s similar to when he chose to miss the early flag football practices – with our blessing – to be with his basketball team in the final tournament of the season.

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Thinking along these lines, coupled with the fact that a few of the practices he could have attended were canceled due to weather, his mother and I agreed that he would skip the team party and attend the final preseason flag football practice. We knew it might not be the popular decision, but strongly felt it was the right one for the flag football team. Remember, it is now officially flag football season.

The good news is our son made the same decision before we even offered what would have come across initially as just our opinion. However, we were prepared to step in and make what we strongly felt was the correct decision. Sometimes, as parents, that is our job. 

Yes, it absolutely would have been nice for him to do both, but that wasn’t in the cards, or on the spring sports calendar, this time around.

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Jon Buzby has been involved in and writing about youth sports for the past 30 years, originally as a coach and board member with his now-adult son and most recently "just as a dad" with his 8- and 10-year-old sons. Jon is an award-winning writer and his latest book, “Coaching Kids Made Easier,” is available on Amazon. Send comments or future blog topics you'd like to see to JonBuzby@hotmail.com and follow him @YouthSportsBuzz on Twitter.