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Thursday, October 27, 2005
Georgia football foul for Moms
Is it fair for ‘hardworking’ husband to spend weekends on sports? Why can’t ‘game day’ be family friendly?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s great to be a Georgia Bulldog.
Yeah, it’s great to be a Georgia Bulldog – if you’re not the one home alone with the kids.
My husband’s season football tickets to our alma mater mean he gets fantastic Saturdays in Sanford Stadium with his best friend reliving his college days.
I know Michael works hard and deserves down time. However, if I said he had to take care of the kids for eight hours while I went shopping every Saturday, you better believe we’d have some problems.
I used to be included in these glorious game days. We would tailgate and cheer on the Dogs together.
But after our first child arrived four years ago, my season ticket got transferred to my husband’s college roommate. The only game I ever attend now is Homecoming.
Two seasons ago, I decided to take the 2-year-old and 5-month-old to visit a girlfriend in Athens during a game so I wouldn’t feel so left out. We drove over with my husband and his friend and dropped them off by North Campus. I was later told that wouldn’t happen again – the kids had ruined their buzz.
Last season, I had completely had it by the fourth consecutive home game. The house needed repairs. I had a terrible cold, and I just needed a break from the kids. I begrudgingly took Michael to a garage to pick up his car so he could head east to get trashed on Jack and Coke and bark like a dog.
As I drove home with the babies in their car seats, listening to the Disney’s Greatest Volume 1 album for the 900th time, cussing my husband, Mark Richt and the whole Bulldog Nation, I got pulled over for speeding.
As much as I want to be included in the game-day experience, I’m not quite ready to commit to the eight-hour odyssey that my husband turns each game into. He arrives early, drinks, eats and then stays late to sober up. Even if I was ready to devote that much time to a game, I’m not willing to spend $9 an hour for a babysitter.
Even though I don’t want to root against the Dogs, the better they play, the worse I get screwed. Game days turn into game weekends. When they’re winning, Michael wants to follow the team around the Southeast. And of course there is always the exciting annual drunken call from Jacksonville after the Florida game. (I put my foot down this year. He stayed home — and ignored us while he watched the game here.)
On the rare occasion that the whole family goes, there still are problems. The University of Georgia insists all children, even infants, pay the full adult ticket price. However, it does very little to make the experience family friendly.
Drunks spew profanity and tobacco juice. Newer ticket holders like us are stuck in the hot sun. There is no place to take kids to cool off except the concourse at the top of stadium, which is full of smokers and drunk sorority girls stumbling around in their stilettos.
There’s no official stroller parking inside or outside of the stadium, which makes it tough to get my 31-pound 2-year-old to the game. There also is no decent place to nurse. One year, a paramedic took pity on me and let me sit in the back of his ambulance to breastfeed and change Rose.
I don’t really want to go to every game, as much as I just want to tailgate in Athens. If the university wants to make even the littlest Bulldogs welcome, it would open up the Ramsey Student Center to season ticket-holder families. The kids could play in the air-conditioned gym during the game and the moms could chit chat.
I can’t imagine the preschoolers could do more damage than the college students.
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Treats all year long
My kids eat healthy meals, but then get sweets several times a day. Am I tricking myself into thinking we have a good diet?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As Halloween approaches I’ve been thinking about treats, and how many I give my kids each day.
I am a total stickler about eating whole grains, healthy cereal and lots of fruits and vegetables. Even their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are sugar free. They aren’t allowed soda, and they drink very little fruit juice because of the high-sugar content.
However, I routinely give them sweet treats probably three times a day. We’ll have two cookies each after lunch. Then when they get up from nap, they might have another cookie or a trail mix with M&M’s in it. And after dinner they almost always get ice cream or pudding or maybe another cookie.
My theory is that I want them to learn what good food is and what junk food is. And I don’t want them to be fooled into eating meals that are full of sugar and fat. I guess as long as they eat well at meal times, know the treats are junk food and eat small portions, I’m OK with that.
Is that nuts? How many treats do you give your kids a day? What do they usually get? How large are portions? Do you talk about junk food versus good food? What are you giving out at Halloween?
Permalink | Comments (15) | Categories: Health
