Sports & violence

[crunchy_mommy]

I was never very into spectator sports, though I did play town league/low-competition sports growing up etc. DH's family is VERY into watching sports (playing them, less so), favorites being hockey & football. I'm not philosophically opposed to sports at all, I think they are great for multiple reasons, but I am having a tough time with the violence inherent in some of them.

We went to a hockey game tonight & there must have been 6 or 7 all-out fights between players while we were there. (Sometimes the refs break up the fights instantly but not tonight....) Luckily 2yo DS was paying more attention to the screaming crowd waving things in the air, but I was a bit horrified by the thought that by this time next year, he'll probably be actually watching the game & witnessing the violence. Even worse if the thought that he'll be seeing people cheer & egg on the fights! That is NOT something I want my child growing up thinking is acceptable or admirable.

So, what to do? Ban violent sports (unlikely given the inlaws' love of them, and I hate 'banning' anything)? Keep it to a minimum, have long discussions about the violence? Only allow him to watch non-violent peewee hockey??? Assume he will understand the violence is not acceptable & we are watching just for the sake of the game itself? I guess I'm just not sure what's the best way to handle it...

[Petie1104]

DH wants to take the kids to a football game and I told him that I won't have them at an actual game (other than hs and maybe college) until the baby is at least 7.  But that is more for my piece of mind as I hate crowds. I hadn't even thought about the poor sportsmanship that they might witness.  So, I'm going to keep an eye on this thread to see what other people suggest.  It's funny because dh and I were just discussing this tonight, so this is timely.

[Linda on the move]

Theres an old joke:

We went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.

My dh likes to take my kids to games, but he didn't take them when they were really little. I'd encourage your dh to go with friends and wait until your son is older to go. My kids habebhad a lot of fun going to football and hockey games with daddy.

Kids really don't have to be very old to understand that what is ok at a hockey game isn't ok any where else, even at a football game!