I haven’t always been the biggest sports fan. I mean growing up I played soccer and baseball, but I didn’t ever really get that into them. So what do you do when your child has a love and passion for something that you’re not so much of a fan of?
My son is a complete sports fan! He loves watching basketball, baseball, football, if there is a ball involved he loves it. We take him to the local sporting events and he sits there and watches every moment.
We recently were in a restaurant where a football game was playing on the TVs. He couldn’t take his eyes off them and even became a fan of one of the teams as he started cheering and booing when the other team was beating his team. Ok- maybe not that far but he loves to cheer whenever the ball is moving.
The question then arises, is it just a phase or is he going to be a sports fan his entire life? Is this something that I am going to need to understand in major details like my friends do?
When I lived in California I lived with a family who’s kids were into sports: basketball and water polo. I wasn’t really into either sport, but I made sure to go to every game and support them. These kids were like my little siblings and I wanted to support them in any way that I could.
From then on I learned all the different things to yell out to the players. Things that they could do that maybe they weren’t seeing, but I could see and wanted to help them out. Believe me, they could always hear me. I learned to love their sports and actually learned more of the rules and object of each of the sports they played.
Once I moved home I made sure to keep this going by attending my nephew’s different events that he was participating in. I never really loved the games, but I have always known how much they loved seeing me there supporting them and cheering them on.
Now let’s take this into fatherhood, what if my kid is a great athlete? Am I going to support him? You bet I am! If my children get into sports, dancing, knitting, whatever their passion is I will support them every way I can. Even if that means that I need to coach them. It may be a stretch but I will do whatever I can to learn about it and help them succeed.
I think that fathers tend to get a little selfish here especially if their kid doesn’t love the father’s favorite sport. Some dads have a hard time supporting dance or drama especially when they want to see their child be the starting quarterback. Mom can go their events, but the second their child does something that interests them they are all over it. Why does it have to be that way? It doesn’t!
If my child doesn’t love shopping like I do, that’s okay. I don’t want to pressure them to do anything they don’t want to do. But I do want my children to be involved in something and have a passion for something. Even if that means they are a total sports fan. The most important thing is that they see their parents as their cheerleaders and know that we are proud of them no matter what.
