My Little Girl Likes Football!!

A wonderful thing has happened over the last couple of weeks...my girls have decided they like watching football with me!!  Particularly Evie, who has also stated that she wants to play football (flag football) in the summer time.  Talk about one happy Papa Bear!!

To be sure this didn't happen overnight, in fact I've slowly but surely allowed my love of the game to seep into their lives.  I started a couple of years ago in the playoffs, by asking Evie which teams she thought were going to win.  She went an amazing 9-2 picking the winners that year and thus a tradition was born.  We take time most weeks during the season to make our picks and each Tuesday or Wednesday review the games' scores to see who won (TIP:  It's a good way for her to review her numbers too...in a way that doesn't seem like homework).  She asks to do the picks now without any prompting.  I'm pretty proud that she can pretty much identify every NFL team by logo and even has a favorite team(s) and player (even though none of her favourite teams are my favourite - HTTR!!). 

Unfortunately a by-product of getting to know teams and players is that it skews your ability to make objective picks.  And so our record for picks is at a career low this year.  I chalk that up to Evie choosing not who she thinks will win, but who she wants to win.  Oh well, it's always more fun when you have a little vested interest in your picks. 

It seems silly but I am quite pleased about her developing interest in football and not solely from a selfish perspective because I get to watch more games now.  I'm not totally delusional - I'm pretty sure Evie likes the fact that she gets to stay up later and hang-out with her old man more than actually watching the game.  It has become a really nice time where she'll cuddle up to me and just kind of rest in my presence.  We already spend tons of time together doing stuff, but somehow this is different. 

Often we're so busy being parents - teaching, moralizing, monitoring, preparing, mediating, trying to get through supper or whatever activity is on the docket next...doing, doing, doing...that we don't take time to decompress and just be there for our kids and with our kids.  I think that's what this time is for us.  There's no pressure to go anywhere or do anything, there's no set agenda and no expectations on Evie either (except to maybe wait until the next break in action to ask for more water).  We're content  to just be together relaxing.  We chat about this and that, have some snacks and for a short amount of time set aside all the parent-child drama and are merely two football fans (and fans of each other) catching a game together.  Maybe that sounds like lazy parenting but I think it has been great for our relationship.  I call it smart parenting and making the most of every opportunity my child presents to strengthen our bond.  I think Evie has this sense that we're sharing something that for right now is just for us.  We're bonding over football and be it over football or ballet...finding a special bond, something to share with your kids is a wonderful thing.

Evie's favourite team and player.