The Hits: Sarah has a proud step-mum moment

Sarah van der Kley

Mother's Day is this Sunday, a day where mothers all around New Zealand will be honoured with breakfast in bed (usually burnt toast and cold weak tea), lovely home-made cards (often featuring unflattering pictures of Mum) and unfulfilled promises of "no fighting" from their children.

Mothers absolutely deserve to be treated like queens on this special day (and every day!) but so do step mums.

They often get overlooked on the second Sunday in May but rest assured if you're a child of a step parent, they love you like you're their own.

They too feel the fear, love and appreciation of a parent. And they feel pride in what you do.

I had a proud step mum moment last week when I took my 12-year-old step son along to his first soccer practice of the season.

He's just joined a new team and as the training was at a field we hadn't been to before and there were several teams from his club practising at the same time, we weren't sure exactly where he was supposed to be.

I approached one of the coaches and asked if this was the team Luke was in.

He responded by saying he doubted it as this was "the team", the top team in the grade, a team you had to trial to get into.

I agreed this was probably not the team we were looking for but the coach suggested Luke join his boys and he'd see how he went.

At that point I felt extremely nervous for Luke. I could already tell these kids were in a different league to him and he probably could too, but he joined them on the field for a mock game anyway and played his best.

They ran rings around him. Not only that, but they weren't very nice about it.

Several of them jeered when he missed a tackle, others groaned when his kicks weren't quite on target.

He was in over his head but I felt incredibly proud when he soldiered on and kept trying.

When he tripped over the ball and someone laughed I felt sure he was going to walk off the field. But he didn't.

He held his head up high, kept trying, and with just a few minutes left, scored a magnificent goal!

I felt the same excitement that any parent would at that moment, whooping and hollering from the sideline like the proud and slightly embarrassing step mum I am.

- Sarah

• Don't miss Adam Green and Sarah Van Der Kley on The Hits Hawke's Bay from 6am to 9am Monday to Friday.