Sometimes I wish I had children who just sat

Yesterday we went to a sports day at CAJ. It was for home schooling families, but because my husband helped out with running an afternoon of games, our boys were invited to join in the fun.

In the morning the children rotated around four different sports, giving them a taste of tennis, soccer, basketball and cricket. Yes - cricket! What a surprise. Amongst the CAJ community are a couple of Indian families, one dad was kind enough to come and teach the children a tiny bit of cricket. It truly is a sport that is mysterious to most of the world! The bat they used was signed by some international cricketers, including a former captain of England's team (Mike Gatting). It is nice to see CAJ becoming more multicultural.

One of the things that stands out for me was personalities. At lunch-time my kids ate and ran - typical. They really don't eat much at school usually, because there is too much play to be done. However I lingered longer in the bright autumn sun. Eventually I realised that the girls on the next table over were dressed the same, had the same drink bottles, their hair was done in the same fashion etc. Yes, they were twins. 5 y.o. twins. The more amazing thing was that they sat for the entire lunch-hour. Just sat, and ate, slowly. My boys never sit and eat. They squirm, they shove it in and they leave. Getting them to linger over a meal is like extracting a tooth without anaesthetic. Very painful. I can only imagine what it must be like to have children who just sit quietly.

I was soon to have more confirmation of my boys' personalities. We were grouped together as families, in fact we had three families (mums and kids) in our team. 

Very soon my eldest was trying to entertain the others by putting the road cone on his head, by playing with water and blindfolding himself and others with the bandanna that awaited us at our relay-station.

My middle son was intense at the games. Competitive to the last. Determined that we obey the rules, even if it wasn't clear what they were!

My youngest was the victim of the other two as well as his youth. He quickly tired of the competitiveness, of the intensity and the pressure. He folded and assumed that it was all too hard.

And then my husband, who was running the games, when I complained about some unclear rules, said, "Well, at least everyone is having a fun time." I cannot say that I was having a fun time. Trying to wrestle a balloon off two intense brothers rolling in the dirt. Trying to placate the youngest and stop him being victimised by his brothers. Trying to explain to the middle son that it was okay that the neighbouring team didn't exactly follow the rules. Trying to make sure everyone had a chance to participate. It wasn't fun. But I guess most people had fun. And overall the day wasn't that bad, but thankfully it ended a bit early, I wasn't sure how much more I could take.

Some people consoled me with the presumption that my boys would go home and collapse. They don't know my boys. My kids are like energiser bunnies and go and go and go. After sports day the younger two went across the road to their usual 1 hour swimming lesson. When they got home from that they wanted to play soccer outside or balloon volleyball in the lounge. It was only when I said that I needed help putting sheets back on beds that they feigned tiredness!

However I was tired, mentally if not physically. We parked them in front of a video for an hour before tea (dinner), just to give us a break and help their active bodies to slow down. Soon they'd rush through another meal and we'd push them to bed (energiser bunnies don't appreciate being made to slow down, they click). Then we could have some peace.