Two things have caught my attention today...
One is that a lot of you have the much loved sports days either happening today or coming up very soon. I am going to be brutally honest and I am sure this post may evoke a large cry of "HOW COULD SHE SAY THAT" however I will say it, I HATE SPORTS DAY.
Luckily for me both mine are over the sports day bump and I no longer have to stand in the blistering heat (ha ha) watching a whole class of kids pass a bloody bean bag over their heads. What happened to the good old egg and spoon race, three legged race and the sack race - Health and Safety is what happened.
When my kids were in primary school it was a lot of passing balls over heads, throwing beanbags in hoops and a special favourite of The Whirlwind - the skipping rope race.
I mean, please, It is a known fact that boys cannot skip, The Whirlwind looked like Mr Bean with coordination problems and proceeded to fall over more times than Iggle Piggle from In The Night Garden.
I am sure if you have extremely sporty kids it must be a joy for you to watch but if, like me, you happen to have the two most unsporty kids in the universe, please spare a thought for us poor parents that have to endure all the tears and tantrums (and that's just the parents) as they come last in every race.
You will of course have to endure those parents that think they have the next Usain Bolt in a PE kit and are happy to tell you how you should try to encourage yours to do more sports and then maybe they wont be as upset. (I kid you not, someone actually once said this to me.)
All kids are brilliant in different areas and unfortunately for The Whirlwind it wasn't skipping. He once asked me when in the future he would ever use this skill (after the same women from above offered to teach him how to use a skipping rope) I didn't really have an answer except that maybe... Maybe... Some day... Nope. I just didn't have an answer.
It was no secret that I hated sports day and I became quite the professional in the art of moaning about it. Luckily I had many friends that felt exactly the same way as I did and we decided the only way to get through it was laughter (and gin.) No. No, I'm just kidding, we wouldn't take gin onto a school playing field - honest.
The second thing that caught my attention was that David Beckham had won the dads' race at his sons sports day. If he had been a dad at my kids' school I might just have enjoyed it a little bit more. And my stash of gin might have made Posh Spice smile. Come on, I said might.
Good luck to all you kids out there.
Lots of Love
Me
xxx
I'm 40ish and live in East Sussex with my hubby of 18 years, a 15-year-daughter named in the blog as The Teenager, a 12-year-old son known as The Whirlwind and our gorgeous but slightly crazy Cocker Spaniel.
Blogs at: The 40 Year Old Domestic Goddess
Twitter: @sthurley49