I should be delighted that our children have allowed the sport bug to bite. Apart from the benefits to health, fitness and overall sense of well-being, adding sport to the schedule reduces the time available for shopping malls and other favoured teenage pursuits.
Sport practices on weekday afternoons are not a huge imposition, although Aedan’s “captain’s practice” on a Friday afternoon, which involves sitting in rush hour traffic exiting Town to get there at 6.00 requires its own de-stressing gym session. Saturday mornings in winter involve pre-dawn starts and matches in far-flung corners of the Western Cape. By 9.00 am, when the matches are finished, it feels like one should be sitting down to lunch.
Lunch is something we did sit down to on Sunday, but only after delivering Sophie to lifesaving at Clifton. I was able to dash down main course, and then had to jump up again to deliver Aedan to soccer and fetch Sophie from the beach. I managed a lifesaving glass of red wine accompanying the cheese course, followed by dessert, and then had to leap up again to fetch Aedan from soccer.
So, we’ve succeeded in cutting down on teenage idleness, but at the expense of adult leisure time. Something isn’t right.
