Reshuffle
There is a balance to be found between the manic ferrying between rugby, tennis, football, swimming etc. that so many parents find themselves doing, and relaxing at home.
We've done the ferrying and, fed up with spending our lives in the car, opted for a spell of relaxation. However, the reality of having two bored boys at home is that most afternoons and weekends are spent in endless and pointless arguments about when and who is going to play on the X-Box, phone, TV (select screen of your choice).
There's no point making the boys do stuff they don't want to do. We've tried all of the above with varying degrees of success. All you can really do, is offer them as many chances as possible to try new activities, and they have given them all up (with the exception of tennis).
The problem is that they don't have a team sport to play, and while I get that not everyone's a team player, I also still believe that understanding how to play for and be part of a team, is an important skill to learn. Plus it would get them out of the house and make them exercise.
The only sport left is hockey, so time to give that a go. They both enjoy it at school, but we want them to make friends outside school if we can. After that, I give up. They say they like running - but they never run. They say they like piano - but never practice. Will wants to do polo - but spends most of his time sitting staring into space. Where is the initiative?
In other news, the dog is slowly disintegrating. She has horrible diarrhoea, and this afternoon I came home to a steaming, frothing pool of vomit. She is still losing condition and weight. We can't continue to put her through this. I don't think it's going to work.
We've done the ferrying and, fed up with spending our lives in the car, opted for a spell of relaxation. However, the reality of having two bored boys at home is that most afternoons and weekends are spent in endless and pointless arguments about when and who is going to play on the X-Box, phone, TV (select screen of your choice).
There's no point making the boys do stuff they don't want to do. We've tried all of the above with varying degrees of success. All you can really do, is offer them as many chances as possible to try new activities, and they have given them all up (with the exception of tennis).
The problem is that they don't have a team sport to play, and while I get that not everyone's a team player, I also still believe that understanding how to play for and be part of a team, is an important skill to learn. Plus it would get them out of the house and make them exercise.
The only sport left is hockey, so time to give that a go. They both enjoy it at school, but we want them to make friends outside school if we can. After that, I give up. They say they like running - but they never run. They say they like piano - but never practice. Will wants to do polo - but spends most of his time sitting staring into space. Where is the initiative?
In other news, the dog is slowly disintegrating. She has horrible diarrhoea, and this afternoon I came home to a steaming, frothing pool of vomit. She is still losing condition and weight. We can't continue to put her through this. I don't think it's going to work.
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