One element of self-awareness is knowing what I am and what I am not. What I most certainly am not is athletic! Read this post to see how I live out that lack of athletic ability through my grandchildren.
As a general observation, our family’s sports time was, and is, mostly focused on college football. Thus, Saturday afternoons and evenings involved watching games on TV while eating chili that my wife put on to cook early that same morning. When our daughters were in school, they would watch the AM pregame college football shows with my wife.
My Personal Experiences
I played two years of recreational-league baseball when I was in junior high school. However, I was never a starter on any team. That said, I really enjoyed playing baseball. Other sports got much less of my attention.
Later, while in college, I played some church-league softball. Again, fairly mediocre but energetic.
Our fourth child was a late addition to our family. As a result, I was the oldest father who was helping with the baseball teams he played on. Unlike me, he was actually talented at baseball! He played baseball all the way through to his middle-school years. However, we never let him play travel baseball due to the time commitment and required Sunday games.
Unsurprisingly, I spent quite a bit of time as an assistant coach on his various baseball teams. The two of us also practiced, one-on-one, multiple days during the season, as well as off-season. Thus, baseball was a major time commitment for us while he was growing up.
Although his skill set in baseball improved consistently over the years, mine seemed to stay about the same!
We spent some limited time watching high school football, but only because our oldest and youngest were in the band. So, there were times when I would walk in just before half time, watch the band perform, then leave before the game was over!
My wife, on the other hand, was one of the band moms. As a result, she was much more involved in band activities, such as going to band camp in the summer!
Our two oldest children were casually involved in softball (daughter) and football/soccer (son). But, that involvement was nothing like the depth of time commitment of our youngest in baseball.
Grandchild Athletics
Our grandchildren have been, and are, involved in a variety of sports and extra-curricular activities. For instance, band, flag corps, football, basketball, rec league and travel baseball, and lacrosse.
What’s lacrosse you ask? Well, lacrosse is a mysterious game that has something to do with a goal, a ball, and a stick with a net on the end.
No, not a fishing net!
Those grandchild activities involve planned trips for my wife and I to various sporting events. Then, a family dinner at a restaurant after the event.
The exception is for baseball tournaments that last for over 72 hours on a single Saturday! By some miracle, the tournaments feature no shade within a 20-mile radius! Thus, the grandparents often leave before the tournament is over!
Interestingly, it seems much less stressful, thus more enjoyable, to watch grandchildren play sports than to watch children do the same thing. Perhaps it’s because of the reduced level of personal involvement in the outcome.
As expected, fund-raisers are ongoing. And, as grandparents, we are well-supplied with various items that go on sale about 20 minutes after the first day of school each year!
College Sports
For the twelve years I was a faculty member at Miami University we had season tickets to the football games, near the 50-yard line. Miami U. played in the Mid-American Conference.
Truly, we enjoyed the games, which were always on Saturday afternoon. As a result, we attended the games, then came home to watch football on TV late-afternoon and evening.
Those Miami U. games were not heavily attended, thus we left home about 30-minutes before kickoff and were in the stands in time for the band’s pregame show.
Also no surprise, the student section normally emptied out during the third quarter.
Invariably, we sat in snow at least once per season because those games were in the Midwest.
The recent national championship by the University of Georgia in college football was certainly a highlight of being a UGA fan for so many years. I attended UGA three years as a Ph.D. student, but we didn’t go to any regular season games during that time.
One of our children, who I refuse to name, attended a University of South Carolina football game in Columbia. Worse yet, he took our granddaughter! And, he dressed her in a USC cheerleading outfit!
Their mascot is a rooster, which likely explains the multi-year, sub-par performance of their football teams!
Fortunately, none of our children or grandchildren are involved in support of college sports for teams that wear orange! Right now, that fatally-distasteful condition is confined to my wife’s side of the family who live in that state south of Georgia.
Professional Sports – Ugh!
As a teenager and young adult, I watched professional baseball and football on TV regularly. Now, as an older adult I have near zero interest in pro sports, to the point that I probably watch less than five hours per calendar year.
Moreover, I don’t watch pro basketball, NASCAR auto racing, or hockey – ever.
To my horror, we had a group of otherwise rational adults in our previous church that would spend an entire Sunday watching people drive around in a circle at the Atlanta Motor Speedway! For what?
And, before you ask, I don’t hunt or fish either!
So, between grandchildren and college football, I simply don’t need pro sports.
Some Takeaways
To repeat, what I most certainly am not is athletic. Therefore, I live out my sports dreams through my grandchildren.
The sports interests of our children and grandchildren vary widely. In fact, it’s Ok to let them try different things, enjoy themselves, then move on to something else. Experiencing, then moving on, is part of living life in balance.
Sports are an opportunity for our children and our grandchildren to spend some focused time together. As grandparents, we enjoy seeing that family-level engagement in a variety of different sporting activities.
Extra-curriculars like sports are good for adding interests and variety to a child’s life. However, it’s best if those activities don’t dominate a child’s or grandchild’s expectations for either their future, or their current life.