Another bloody sports day…..
I feel SO sorry for my third child. I am SO unutterably bored of sports day it’s ridiculous. Here was what I wrote for sports day THREE YEARS AGO, when my daughter left primary school and she was team captain! There’s no hope left for him to find any enthusiasm from me then is there:-
“‘Tis the season to find yourself in a frenzy of end of term activity. Particularly if, like me, you have a child just about to leave primary school. There have been end of year drinks, end of year parties, end of year productions, end of year trips to Chessington Zoo, end of year celebration nights, end of year anything else you can think of to waste everybody’s time and of course there is end of year sports day.
Sports day brings out the best and the worst of humanity I think. Children trying their hardest and parents screaming from the sidelines. To be honest, I am incandescently bored of sports days – rather like children’s parties I have had to endure far too many of them (32 and counting) and my photograph albums are full of tiny specs of unidentifiable children running down a field. But in addition to boredom, there is also the looming fear at the thought of the Mother’s race and of course a little bit of excitement and/or sympathy thrown in for the ups and downs of the races themselves. The children run their little socks off, some laughing when they lose, some crying. Such raw determination. It’s great. So you can imagine that when I turned up yesterday to find that they have redesigned the whole day to ensure that “everyone is a winner”, I was not terribly impressed. Ok, the children probably prefer it, but is it right to protect them from the concept of winners and losers? It’s a tough world out there and I’m not sure we are doing much to help them if we allow ourselves to bring up a generation of winners (or in fact losers). I feel particularly sorry for those kids who excel at sports but not maths. Where do they now get to shine?
One huge bonus of the newly designed sports day was that they have done away with the parents races. Normally, I am filled with trepidation about how to get out of the Mother’s race without my children losing face. The reason I don’t want to participate in it is because I won’t win. Obviously this is not the right message to be sending to my children, so I have had to make up excuses (like I’ve got my period). I was sorry not to be able to watch the mothers in high heels and wrap around skirts suddenly peel off their clothes to reveal cycling shorts and killer spikes and doing star jumps in preparation.
The Father’s race is even worse. It should come with a government health warning. It is one of the most dangerous races the world has ever known. Emotionally charged, completely determined, focused, highly competitive men who have temporarily lost all sense of sanity (because their children are watching), stampede down the length of the field, divets flying and hamstrings snapping all the way. If you are unfortunate enough to be standing reasonably close to the finishing line you are now either in a coma or dead. These men can’t stop – they are running so fast that it takes them 200 yards to slow down and stop, that’s if they haven’t hit a standing object first. Last year one of the dad’s fell over during the race, badly injuring his ankle. He hobbled over to his daughter, who was crying hysterically. “It’s alright darling, I’ll be OK”, he said to her. “I don’t care about whether you’ll be OK, you’ve really, really embarrassed me and now everybody will laugh”, was her devastating reply.
Another parent blogger obviously feels the same. She says:-
“Who took the “sports” out of sports day?
“Oh dear lord, sports day. I am spending the afternoon milling about watching my daughter tossing beanbags and doing football slalom. What is the point of non-competitive sport? How does exchanging hoops in a mutually supportive fashion teach children about life? Do you think the new Government will bring back sports? I do hope so, because this spectacle is demoralising for even the least sporty child”.
janelle
June 13, 2010hideous, aren’t they? actually at the school i work in (Braeburn Arusha) there certainly are winners and losers and shiny cups and medals to win….love watching the interschool cross country against the local schools from west kilimanjaro…these kids come with NOTHING…some of them don’t even have shoes and they run like the wind…leaving everyone else in the posh nikes WAY behind….it’s very emotional to watch!. i’m all for competition. it teaches you to try your best and participate for participation’s sake. to be a gracious loser or winner. it’s life. think that the no winner thingy is totally wanky. life will be rather a shocker if you think that’s how it works….no? this post made me laugh a lot, as usual! lots love lulu xxx j
Family Affairs
June 13, 2010Completely agree with u xx
Jon Storey
June 13, 2010I’m afraid I missed out on the whole school sports thing which is probably just as well. The Children’s Mother and I would probably have been banned by the school and the children for being just too competitive! Neither of us can stand this ‘everyone wins’ thing, what’s the point?
All our lot love sport, rugby (yes the girls!), netball, running, jumping, horse riding and rock climbing, mountain biking and karting. Best of all they have to win, and do, because THEY want to!
We just:
a. Pay for it!
b. Drive none stop to events.
c. Encourage them as much as we can.
d. Pick up the pieces when it goes wrong…..!
e. Rarely get to watch, they hate it!
Crystal Jigsaw
June 13, 2010I think the best thing they could for sports days would be to ban them! Hate them too.
CJ xx
Tara@Sticky fingers
June 13, 2010No I hate hate hate what they have done to sports day. Even my son (who is 7) recognises what a pile of crap it is. He plays football and tag rugby and understands that there are winners and losers and what it means to strive for something and that it feels crap to lose but it’s not the end of the world.
I’m usually the inappropriate mother on the sidelines yelling: “Go on my son!” (kidding, I just come on blogs and rant!)
Kids need to learn that life is competitive and not everything will be handed to them on a plate.
Marget Powles
July 12, 2010Excellent blog. I’d wish to add that I do think flag football is one of the most beneficial all around activities for youngsters, my kids (7 and 13) have gotten in to excellent condition and are generally happier subsequent to joining our local community league.
Josephina Redmond
July 14, 2010Thanks for this- a good post.