September 2029
"How was school, sweetie?" Amy asked as she was making dinner while Iris watched from the stool by the counter.
"It was good. Emma told me that her soccer team needs more girls. Can I play?" the eight-year-old excitedly asked.
Amy looked at her daughter, "I don't know. We'll have to ask Dad what he thinks and I'll call Emma's mom to find out more about this. I don't want this to be taking up all of your free time." Iris took off towards the den where Sheldon was working as Amy said to herself, "I didn't mean ask him right this instant."
"Dad, Momma said I need to ask you if I can join Emma's soccer team. So, can I?"
"I don't know, kiddo. I think Mom and I need to discuss this before deciding. Can you give us a few days to decide?"
Iris stuck out her lower lip. "Fine, but the next practice is on Thursday and I really want to go."
"We'll talk about it, but don't ask us about it until we make a decision. Dinner must be about ready, let's go see what Momma made," Sheldon stood from the desk and followed Iris back into the kitchen.
After Iris was in bed, Sheldon brought up her interest in joining the soccer team. "I think we should let her play."
"Wow. This not the reaction I was expecting to her wanting to play sports. Are you sure? This could be the end of having your Saturdays free. I called Emma's mom to find out more about how much of a time commitment this is going to be. They have practice twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, plus games on Saturdays. The games usually last about an hour, but they do have a few tournaments that could last all day and go into Sunday," Amy shared.
"I know. She only wants to join to spend more time with Emma. I don't want to keep her from spending time with her best friend. If I had a friend like that when I was her age, my mom would have let me do whatever I wanted to spend more time with them."
Smiling, Amy replied, "I never thought you'd be encouraging our daughter to play sports. You're really okay with this?"
Sheldon shrugged, "I don't see what the problem is. She wants to do this. No one is forcing her to do this. Best case, she'll play for a week and be done with it. Worst case, we'll be stuck on the sidelines of her soccer games until she goes off to college."
"Hold up," Amy put her hands up to stop Sheldon from saying anything else. "You're saying 'we.' Are you really going to come to her games with me?"
"Of course, I'll be going to her games with you. I don't want to miss anything with Iris. Something clicked in me before I taught her to ride a bike at my mom's house and I decided I want to enjoy every day with my family. If my wife and daughter are going to soccer games every weekend, then I'll be going with them. Can we tell Iris in the morning? She really wants to be able to go to the practice on Thursday."
"Sounds like you need to get a minivan, Ames," Penny said during girls' night a week after Iris joined the soccer team.
Amy sipped her wine as Bernadette smirked. "Why do I need to get a minivan? My car is just fine."
"You're a soccer mom, now. Soccer moms tend to drive minivans so they can fit all the kids on the team in their car," Bernadette explained. "Howie and I got a minivan when Halley was born. It's great. Howie loves taking it when they all go to Comic Con since there's so much room for all their stuff."
"How did I turn into a soccer mom? If you had asked me twenty years ago what I thought I'd be doing now, it would not have included taking my eight-year-old to soccer three times a week."
Penny laughed, "I think this happened because you met Sheldon at that coffee shop. We all warned you; he even warned you. You were too in love with him to listen to us. Although, I would have expected Bernie or I to turn into the soccer mom. You are the least soccer mom-like one of us. How did Iris convince Sheldon to let her play?"
Drinking more wine, Amy shocked the others with what she said next, "She didn't have to. If anything, he had to convince me to let her play. It's only been a week, but he's been weirdly excited about going to her practices and the game over the weekend. You should have seen how happy he was for Iris as she was running back and forth during practice last night."
"He is not the same man he was before you met him. If you told me he was going to be excited about his daughter playing soccer when I met him, I would have thought you were crazy," Penny joked.
Iris came running at Sheldon after her soccer game the following weekend, "Dad! Did you see me? Can you believe it?"
"I was watching you the entire time. You were great, kiddo. Do you think this is something you want to keep doing? Remember, we said we'd reevaluate how this is going after two weeks," Sheldon reminded his daughter as she slammed into him for a hug.
Pulling back from the hug, Iris answered, "Yes, I want to keep doing this. Everyone else on my team is really nice and I love having friends who aren't from my school. The coach said he wants to take us out for ice cream to celebrate winning. Can I go?"
Sheldon looked at Amy, who agreed, "That sounds like fun. Let's go get some ice cream, sweetie."