I always look forward to the new football season and another year of following Bangor City in the Welsh Premier League. Since moving to North Wales, I’ve become a season ticket holder and active member of the Supporters’ Association. The new season that begins on Saturday will be the first since the birth of our son in April.
Even before he was born, my wife ordered a custom-made Bangor City baby grow via the internet that fits three to six month olds. As our son recently turned four months old just as the season is about to begin, this seems to have been a perfect choice! Even when our son was only a few weeks old, reading posts by other bloggers about things like taking their son to their first baseball match made me kind of excited about things to come.
I think that it’s important to add that if we’d had a girl rather than a boy, I’d have been just as keen to take them to football matches. For me, this is about sharing interests with one’s kids and encouraging them to take an interest in sport – both as something to watch and something to play.
If our son and any subsequent children decide that football isn’t their thing, it’s not going to be a disappointment to me, well at least not unless they end up joining the already large group of relatives on my side of the family who for some reason prefer rugby to proper football (…a clear sign of a mis-spent youth I feel!).
My own dad seems to prefer both cricket and rugby to football, but that didn’t stop him from taking me to a lot of football matches when I was growing up. This at times involved some quite long journeys across Scotland and demonstrated a sort of devoted and selfless parenting that I will have to work hard to emulate myself.
For me, learning about football has also been about learning about other countries as it has frequently overlapped with my interests in travel and languages. Indeed, donde puedo comprar un billete para el partido de futbol? is one of the phrases of my less than impressive Spanish vocabulaly that most easily rolls off my tongue.
I regularly watched football matches during the three years I spent living in France, my six years as a student in Leeds and this has continued since I moved to Wales in 2007. Getting to know a new area has at times been synonymous with getting to know some of the local football teams.
I have been lucky to attend football matches in a wide variety of other locations in Europe on my travels, including Barcelona, Malaga, Berlin, Helsinki and Rome. I’ve always enjoyed seeing how attending a match differs from one country to another and will never forget being part of an international group of French learners who won a fortnight-long trip to France for the 1998 World Cup.
Sport and national identity seem to be linked in both my professional and family life. I work as a university lecturer in French and have recently been doing some research about national identity and football in France. On a family level, I’ve thought about the fact that the places of birth of myself, my wife and our parents mean that our son would be eligible to play football for Wales, Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
As some have suggested, our son may not turn out to be particularly good at football. In that case he’ll have to make do with the occasional call-up to the Scotland or Northern Ireland squad (…apologies to friends, family and readers from these parts!). Ultimately, I’m not bothered how good our son is at sport. As Michael Cusden suggested in a recent post on his blog Like a Dad, seeing one’s child having fun and trying to support them in doing so is much more important. I hope that as a parent I will manage to strike a balance between encouraging our son to enjoy sport rather than become the sort of overly vocal football dad that was described in a BBC News article last year.
Since becoming a dad, and even before, I’ve realised that my relationship with football has started to change. During the month leading up to my wife’s due date, I stopped going to away matches as I didn’t fancy embarking on a frantic dash home following news that our child was about to put in an appearance. In addition, my wife wasn’t all that impressed when I told her a true story I’d heard about a man who went out to a big football match just as his wife was starting labour and took her into hospital after he’d got back from the game.
For Bangor City, the new season kicks off with a game away to Newtown that would probably involve a five hour round trip from where I live. Despite the fact that it’s a place where myself and fellow Bangor City fans have always received a warm welcome from the locals, I won’t be there. As I work full-time during the week, this means spending quite a bit of time in my office rather than at home. For this reason, time with my wife and son at the weekends and evenings during the week is particularly valuable to me.
I don’t really think that missing a few football matches means that I am sacrificing something and I’m sure that a lot of dads (and mums) who are passionate about football and other sports would say the same.
Did your attitude to sport change after becoming a parent? If so, or if you’d like to share your thoughts on this post, please feel free to let me know in the comments section below. If you want to keep up with this blog, there are ‘Dad’s The Way I Like It’ pages on Facebook or Google+. Remember that you can also subscribe to this blog by entering your e-mail address in the box on the right of the screen.
Stephen Greene
Aug 22, 2013 @ 09:01:37
Good luck Bangor. What are you hopes/expectations for the year? As a Birmingham City fan I am just hoping that we avoid relegation and get a new owner.
Jonathan
Aug 22, 2013 @ 21:11:08
Thanks. Normally, I’d say that Bangor should be finishing in the top two or three in the Welsh Premier League and qualify for Europe. Last season Bangor were 3rd and missed out on European football after losing the Welsh Cup Final and then losing in the league’s Euro play-offs that meant that a team that finished in the bottom half of the twelve team league qualified for Europe at Bangor’s expense. After a run of five consecutive seasons in Europe, not being in it this year has mean that the budget for this season has been reduced so it’ll be harder to get back in. That said, I reckon it’s do-able – especially due to Bangor’s good record in the Welsh Cup (three times winners and twice losing finalists in last six seasons).
It’ll be interesting to see how Birmingham do. It seems like any team in the Championship has the potential to get into the Premiership if they get the financial backing and make a few shrewd transfer moves. Swansea and Hull have both swiftly risen up the leagues but, as Bradford City have shown, it’s possible to have quite a few promotions and then quite a few relegations.
thaygoulart
Aug 28, 2013 @ 02:33:35
Nice how you found a way to stay connected to your son through sports.
Wish I could see it more often where I’m from!
Thank you so much for following my blog, I’m still new to the WordPress community and whenever I get to make new friends, I’m happy.
Did the same with you! 🙂
Jonathan
Aug 28, 2013 @ 09:44:39
Thanks for your comment, glad you liked this post. I really like the way you combine posts in different languages on your blog. I’ve been discussing this with a few fellow bloggers recently as there’s a post that I want to do soon in both English and Welsh. I always enjoy reading perspectives on parenting from people in different locations, which is one of the most fun things about blogging I find!
thaygoulart
Aug 28, 2013 @ 16:31:14
I wish I could help you with that, providing a Brazilian perspective on parenting but — I’m not a mom yet 😀 maybe in 8… 9 years. We’ll see.
Thank you! I think blogging in 2 languages is great, it has broaden my horizons for sure, you should try it!
Seamus Heaney, Haggis and Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau | Dad's the way I like it
Sep 03, 2013 @ 11:13:20
Counting down to the World Cup - Multicultural Kid Blogs
Dec 06, 2013 @ 14:01:04
A Brit and A Southerner
Jan 19, 2014 @ 14:15:30
Love this post! Always like relating to football related posts – especially now that I am in the States and the idea of football here is certainly not the same. I am a Spurs fan but really a die-hard non-league football fan! Always follow my local side, Ramsbottom Utd home and away whenever I am in England. Here is a post I would like to share regarding that which I am sure you will appreciate
http://abritandasoutherner.com/2013/12/29/experiencing-non-league-football-in-england/
Great post!!!
Jonathan
Jan 19, 2014 @ 17:48:50
Thanks, glad you liked it! Although Bangor City are technically not a non-league side as they play in the Welsh Premier, they play at a level that has a lot in common with English non-league football. There really is something special about following football at this sort of level, and watching matches in places you won’t really expect to find a ground. I’ve traveled to a fair few far flung locations watching Bangor! I look forward to reading your post, thanks for providing the link.
My First World Cup as a Dad | Dad's the way I like it
Jul 09, 2014 @ 20:24:36