Sporting Some New Equipment

My neighbours kids are obsessed with sports. Seriously, they’re going to training for a different one virtually every day of the week. Monday’s swimming, Tuesday’s hockey, Wednesday’s tennis, Thursday’s athletics, and Saturday is soccer. Friday afternoons and all day Sunday, they’re kicking various balls around in their backyard.

I don’t know the parents super well, but they don’t come across as stereotypes of the sports mad. They actually look kind of clueless and mildly exasperated as the watch the three kids ceaselessly kicking, running, and pushing each other over. I can’t help but think it’s the kids that are running the show, not the parents (who, let’s face it, would have to be mad to pioneer a program of driving to ovals, courts and tracks every day of the week).

Anyway, I just noticed that they’ve recently elected to buy custom boundary netting for their backyard, which has been mounted on a frame just inside their fence line. I’m guessing that this is an investment in reducing the annoyance of the neighbour on the block behind theirs. That guy probably cops the brunt of kids clambering over their fence to retrieve lost balls.

That reminds me, actually, that I told another kid down the street that I’d buy a raffle ticket later. He was fundraising for his club’s new soccer goal netting but I didn’t have any coins on me earlier. I’ve got to say, having kids seems like it comes with a whole lot of expenditure on nets (of all things).

I think I’m increasingly seeing why sports are good for kids, though – especially ones that have an insane amount of energy, as the ones next door appear to. If those kids were burning it off any other way, they’d be leaving a serious trail of destruction in their wake. Playing sport is a controlled way of letting them run, jump, kick and compete to their hearts’ content.  

It’s probably a good thing, too, that various types of sporting nets exist. Otherwise, there’d be a whole lot more broken windows on the street overlooking the local oval.