On Friday after work I raced home to see my little man Richard participate in his first Auskick session. He is considerably younger than I ever wanted him to be before being involved in any form of organised sport, but he is such a footy tragic and he nagged us so much that in the end I just had to cave.
He is not yet six, and while I am concerned enough about the concept of burnout to yank him from the program should I get any hint that he doesn’t want to be there, he was having so much fun that my concerns are, for now, abated. In fact, he was having so much fun that when it dawned on him that he was going to have to leave he cracked one of his bigger wobblies.
“I don’t wanna ever come here again!” he howled. “EVER!!!” A kid must really love a place if he declares he will never return should he have to leave. Of course, I know my son well enough to know that he will make a big goose of himself if he is really tired, or really thirsty. In this case it was both.