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pnewton
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Becuase it is football. Like Mozart, you either get it or you don’t. How this subject could be turned into an occasion for an atheist to engage in anticatholic rhetoric baffles me.
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pnewton
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If you are a Lion’s fan, you should not be watching football. May I remind you that Nero and Calligula were Lion’s fans. They are the ancient enemies of all Christians. Catholics ideally should be Saint’s fans.
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maryjk
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I have to say, I thought the same thing.This made me laugh out loud. I’m trying to imagine the look on my husband’s face if I told him to forget about the big game…we’re going pumpkin picking and leaf peeping instead.
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pnewton
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As to the OP, find out what your wife really wants and expects. If she wants family time, then find some time for that apart from the football game. Things like football only need to be a problem if they are done in lieu of other important duties. I let my wife have shopping time during games, which she likes sometimes anyway. Yes, it meant I could not totally focus on the game, as I also had parenting duty, it is easy for me to parent and watch football.
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pnewton
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Interesting point. I know many families that make all of the events around a child’s sport. I do not like the message that the child is the center of a family’s universe and the parents just have to suck it up.
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maltmom
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GEAUX SAINT’S
WHO DAT
I was born a Saint’s fan and born again Catholic.
The perfect fit!
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BlueEyedLady
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Excuse me? I think you need to reread my posts. I made it pretty clear that I’m a huge football fan but that it sounded like he was wanting to do the absolute bare minimum. He explained that wasn’t true, and I accepted that.
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twk001
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i am considered the freak among my friends. i am a high school football coach’s wife, and i LOVE high school and college ball. we are season ticket holders to one of the biggest Big-10 teams and with kids it’s hard to attend multiple games, but we still manage 2 each season.
i LOVE my dh’s district and do whatever i can to support the athletic program in general.
while i don’t necessarily like NFL ball (with the pros, i feel like the sport is focused on the money, while with kids and college, it’s still about the love of the game)…i tolerate it being on in the fall because to my family, fall equals football!
i LOVE my dh’s district and do whatever i can to support the athletic program in general.
while i don’t necessarily like NFL ball (with the pros, i feel like the sport is focused on the money, while with kids and college, it’s still about the love of the game)…i tolerate it being on in the fall because to my family, fall equals football!
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Cat
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I think that we all fantasize about long weekends with all kinds of fun and edifying activities that the entire family will joyfully participate in.
But we all know that’s not how it works. Let’s be honest.
Most of the time on a typical Sunday, the baby or the little kids wake everyone up at 4 in the morning, and then the family sits around in their PJs eating junk and reading the papers and watching those real estate shows on TV (or something good if you have cable), and then finally Mom takes the first shower (it’s now 10:30 am, BTW), and tells everyone that if they hurry, they can make it to church (to the "hangover Mass), and so everyone scrambles, and then after church, the family stops at McDonalds because they’re starving, and then they stop at the store for “just a few things,” and end up going to lots of other stores, and a few open houses just for kicks, and they come home five hours later, and it’s now 6:00 at night and no one really wants any supper because they ate junk all day at the stores and in the car, but mom insists that she wants to make the chile that she planned to make this weekend for the cozy family time that never happened, and so Dad goes out again to buy some chips and crackers and soda to go with the chile instead of the raw vegetables that Mom told him to buy, and everyone eats the chile so that Mom won’t feel bad, and while they’re eating, the game is on the TV and even the family members that don’t like football cheer whenever the family favorite team does something good, and the older kids start doing the homework that they procrastinated on all weekend, and the baby and the little kids fall asleep on the floor, and Mom puts them to bed and then discovers that Dad has fallen asleep in front of the game, and so Mom goes to bed and reads a novel until she falls asleep with the lights on, and at 2 in the morning Dad crawls into bed and turns out the lights, and at 4 in the morning, the older kids finally give up on the homework and go to bed for a few hours of sleep before they have to drag themselves out of bed to go back to school.
Isn’t that absolutely delightful?!
Instead of fretting about the family time that we never seem to have, we should appreciate the family time that we really are having. It all goes by so fast.
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CompSciGuy
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Cat
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I think this is one reason why football is so popular. It’s a long game, and there are plenty of plays and for many years now, all the plays are re-played, so if you miss one, even the Play of the Century, it’s OK, because they’ll re-play it a hundred times. Of course, once VCRs were invented, you never had to worry about missing any of the game, and now TiVo makes it possible to not only see the game, but zap the commercials (except for all the good ones).
It’s the perfect game because it accomodates family mayhem.
Things were so different in our family while the girls were growing up. We didn’t watch much football, except for that glorious year, 1986, when the Chicago Bears won the Super Bowl–we brought our second baby daughter home from the hospital that day, and her first evening at home was spent watching the Bears win. She’s a major football fan today–a PACKERS fan! Oh, woe and lamentations!–where did we go wrong?!
Anyway, what we watched was FIGURE SKATING. When figure skating was on TV, EVERYTHING was set aside, including anything the kids were doing. We often said that the house could be burning around us, and we would still be sitting there watching figure skating.
Figure skating in the days before VCRs was harder to watch with little kids around, because inevitably, during the Greatest Program In Skating History, one of the girls would need a diaper change, or both girls would get in a fight. We just ignored them and watched the Greatest Program. Hey, the Long Program (back then) was only 4.5 minutes–everything can wait for 4.5 minutes!
We aren’t together as a family very often now, since both girls have grown up and moved away. But when we do get together, we still watch figure skating if it’s on–it’s even more fun now, since both girls coach the sport, and my husband skates, and we all know what’s happening on the ice and what those scores mean. In fact, we actually know several of the skaters and coaches. Lots of fun.
Anyway, I think that watching sports on TV is one of the most fun family activities and one of the cheapest activities. Anyone who doesn’t care for the sport (whatever it is) can sit around and read a novel or do homework or play games on the computer or play regular games on the floor or play dolls or Hot Wheels or Thomas the Train or shake a rattle while the game, competition, or tournament is on the air. It’s not WHAT you are doing that’s important–it’s being together in the same general vicinity and enjoying each other’s company. So precious.
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maryjk
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Your post reminds me of a commercial I saw at the dentist’s office.
It showed two children, a boy and a girl. The boy is driving car on the grass and the girl is playing with a doll, I think. The father comes out and asks what do they want to do. I think he gives options, I don’t really remember.
But the kids, say something like, can’t we just do this???
Family times, happen. I don’t know how many really great family times I remember from when I was young that were planned. Most of them were when the pool overflowed, or when we lost power on New Year’s Eve or when we lived in a hotel for two weeks during a military move.
My son talks about the time we blew bubbles in the kitchen, then mopped. Or sleeping in the basement during a hurricane. Or camping out in my parent’s living room as we helped to pack them out. Or the marshmallow gun fights he started out of no where. That’s where the memories come from.
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Moore11
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You absolutely hit the nail on the head. Football is the perfect family sport to watch. We go over to our friends house to watch games often. They have 5 boys and 1 girl and we have three girls. All the kids are 7 and under. It is total chaos and so much fun! DVR really is the best. We pause the game for a while so we can eat, talk or just wrestle kids and then we are able to skip past inappropriate commercials. If a player gets hurt we pause it and pray. It is a fun time. Tonight we watched the 1st NFL game of the season. It was on as we prepared dinner, talked about our day and played fun games. Then we paused it in the 4th quarter so we could go on our family walk around the neighborhood. Came back and watched the end of the game. I saw every play, my wife saw all the good ones that I told her about and we all watched the final 6 minutes.
With this formula I spend a huge amount of time with my family and also get to see more football than the average american. My daughter “Tebows” whenever she does something athletic which for her means jumping in the pool.
Granted my wife is a good sport and lets me “have” football to keep my manhood as a stay at home homeschooling dad. She bought the season tickets for our favorite college team and loves to go but understands when I take a buddy or a kid.
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Moore11
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Hockey is on TV? Or a sport?
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BlueEyedLady
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Your wife was amazing enough to get you season tickets to your favorite team and she loves to go but sometimes to take a friend instead? Kid I get, but buddy?She bought the season tickets for our favorite college team and loves to go but understands when I take a buddy or a kid.
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Moore11
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I know, I know but she really does encourage my bromances…
We do travel to the bowl games though. Took a newborn to the fiesta bowl 2 and a half years ago…
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The_Bucket
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My wife wishes I had more friends and hung out with them more often, so I know where you’re coming from. We do so much family stuff I think she gets sick of me sometimes!
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The_Bucket
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Actually, I like pumpkin picking, as long as it’s only once a year and it’s for Halloween pumpkins. Watching my little guys wander through the patch is adorable. Going out and cutting down Christmas trees is also fun and manly to at least a small degree.I don’t think my dad would have gone pumpkin picking on a Sunday if the alternative had been sitting at home and watching his own grass grow.
Looking at leaves? No thanks.
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shainski
Guest
wow, that might be how your weekends go, but it isn’t our dynamic.
We go to the 8am service just so we have as much of the day ahead of us as possible. If they have “hospitality”, we will go for donuts and bagels for maybe 1/2 hour after service. If it is in the fall, the kids go to Sunday school right after the 8am service - so they are done by 10:15. (We could go to the 10:30 mass, but by then the day woudl be far too long gone).
We have memberships at 3 different museums, the zoo, the domes (horticultural gardens). In the fall, we do indeed go to corn mazes and pumpkin farms. This weekend, there is a big kite flying event at the lakefront.
After Sunday school, sometimes the kids want to play at one of the playgrounds near the church. Then we head home - head off to one of our adventures.
If there is a late game (3pm-6pm), we sometimes get home and I let the kids take a nap down in the basement (where our tv is) and they can take a nap to the game (Our kids do enjoy the football games). But, as i said, our kids have more fun at the local high school game on friday night.
If we were to take noon to 3 p.m. out of the picture, then indeed our day would be cut in half.
Now, if the Packers are playing at night, then we will watch part of the game. (And it does seem the last couple years, the Packers have been blessed with a lot of Sunday, Monday and Thursday night games).
We don’t let the games rule our life - but we will enjoy them at our own convenience.
I’m not saying that Josh shouldn’t be allowed to watch the games - I don’t know his family dynamics. But with my family and our 4 young kids (ages 3,5,6 and 7), your portrayal of what is normal - just isn’t our dynamic.
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NSFrame
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Cat, normally I am with you, but that is not our Sunday either. Near the end of the workweek, the husband and I will decide on some fun family activity that will take place over the weekend, be it pumpkin picking, apple picking, visiting the botanic gardens (my favorite), just going out to the lakefront for a picnic (we live 1/2 a mile from Lake Michigan), or the much-maligned leaf-peeping (hey, I am from New England). I like to get the baby outdoors at least once a day and to do at least one “family” activity once a week.
Our Saturday/Sunday (whichever is family day) usually looks like: one parent gets up at crack-o-dawn with baby, other parent sleeps in (we alternate), then when second spouse is up, 2-hour struggle to get both parents dressed, ready, and fed, then off to where we’re going around noon, then home around 4-5, then often Mass at 5 PM (I go to the campus ministry nearby which has evening Masses, so this happens Sundays too), then dinner, then bed.
The other weekend day is more for chores and any shopping that needs to be done. I always do my groceries during the week so as to free up the weekends for this.
I don’t mind watching the game as a family with older kids, but an infant or a 2-year-old (OP’s youngest) cannot and really should not be in front of the TV all afternoon. And as I mentioned before, the game cuts a Sunday in half so effectively that insisting that Dad be home watching it EVERY SINGLE Sunday means a loss of half the weekend EVERY SINGLE week.
OP needs to compromise with his wife. Some weekends will be football weekends (maybe some of the bigger rivalry games?) and others will only be football weekends if both spouses agree that it makes sense that day.
(hey, I am from New England). I like to get the baby outdoors at least once a day and to do at least one “family” activity once a week.Our Saturday/Sunday (whichever is family day) usually looks like: one parent gets up at crack-o-dawn with baby, other parent sleeps in (we alternate), then when second spouse is up, 2-hour struggle to get both parents dressed, ready, and fed, then off to where we’re going around noon, then home around 4-5, then often Mass at 5 PM (I go to the campus ministry nearby which has evening Masses, so this happens Sundays too), then dinner, then bed.
The other weekend day is more for chores and any shopping that needs to be done. I always do my groceries during the week so as to free up the weekends for this.
I don’t mind watching the game as a family with older kids, but an infant or a 2-year-old (OP’s youngest) cannot and really should not be in front of the TV all afternoon. And as I mentioned before, the game cuts a Sunday in half so effectively that insisting that Dad be home watching it EVERY SINGLE Sunday means a loss of half the weekend EVERY SINGLE week.
OP needs to compromise with his wife. Some weekends will be football weekends (maybe some of the bigger rivalry games?) and others will only be football weekends if both spouses agree that it makes sense that day.
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