It’s sports day season so we’ve gone back to our first sports day in Primary School, with its bizarre mix of races and activities. Sports days can be stressful for both children and parents with its mix of adrenaline and anxiety. Add in an exuberant toddler and you have a recipe for total disaster. Or you may experience something completely surprising instead. Here is our story…
This story is part of our School series
My First Sports Day: It's Not about Winning or Losing
Mummy (5 Years Parenting)
Nobody warned me about the perils of attending sports day as a parent. My own vague memories of sports days in primary school do not include my parents (sorry folks!) and let’s not delve into the generally traumatic sports days of those awkward teenage years.
And now I’m back – attending my first primary school sports day with my eldest Tomos. And he is staring at me with full blown terror in his eyes. Oh yes, the horrors of sports days are all coming back to me now.
Poor boy. Standing on the starting line surrounded by a mix of terrified and over-excited children, several harassed looking teachers and there’s at least 2 children howling at the top of their lungs.
They are starting with the bean-bag race. Trying to walk as quickly as they can while balancing the bean-bag on their heads.
The expression on his face is shifting from terror to full blown ‘get me out of here’ panic. I feel your pain child. It drops off his head and I try to encourage him to pick it back it up from my spectator spot several metres away.
“Mine!” Luc lunges forward.
Oh did I not mention that I also have the terror toddler with me?
Luc is two and a half and so far has viewed this first sports day as an exercise in how to get away from Mummy and join in.
I grab him, hauling him back before he charges across the field and steals some poor, unsuspecting child’s bean-bag.
Tomos has managed to pick up the bean-bag and carry on as I wrestle with his brother on the sidelines. It falls off several more times (don’t worry kid, balancing things on your head is probably not a life-skill you will need), but he perseveres.
We clap and cheer as he manages to finish the race. He’s looks slightly happier. Or slightly less horrified.
And I think I saw a small smile during the running race. Probably at the sight of me chasing his brother away from the start line again – and again and again.
But then came the sack race. Another essential life skill.
Tomos was holding up a brightly coloured sack in complete horror. I tried to mime putting one foot into the sack and then the other and pull it up a bit. Jump child, jump. (Not my finest acting moment I will admit). And that’s when Luc saw his opportunity. He charges across the field and this time I wasn’t able to catch him.
He races over to Tomos, delighted, just as the whistle blows for the start of the race and he starts to jump. Tomos looks over to me panicked so I just start frantically gesturing for him to start jumping.
I’m about to charge over and very publicly extract Luc from the race when I realise they are actually jumping together.
And Tomos is actually laughing. Luc is not managing to trip anybody up (bonus!) and I can hear his little voice calling his brother on, encouraging him to the end.
They are not fast, definitely not co-ordinated and they won’t win any prizes. But I could not be more proud of them.
More Fun from Our First Sports Day
Read on to find out what happened next? – My First Sports Day: Always better with a friend.
Why is Sports Day Important?
Click here for some interesting thoughts on why sports day is important for children.
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