Tip One: You Don’t Need To Have a Lot of Money To Be Good
Throughout the World Cup, I’ve adopted my husband’s favourite team: ABE. ABE stands for Anyone But Europe. It’s not that we’re anti-Europe; we’re just pro-underdog (well, unless Team Canada’s playing hockey).
In the case of the World Cup, though, the group round showed you don’t have to pay the Cristiano Ronaldo’s of the world the GDP of a small nation to see fantastic play. Too often we equate excessive wealth with quality. Italy and France reminded us that’s not the case.
A big bank account doesn’t make good kids.
If it did, we’d be screwed.
Tip Two: Skip the Fancy Toys and Buy a Ball
The Great Equalizer?
Photo courtesy of Flattop342 (cc) Flickr
Fancy toys are overrated. And there’s a correlation between the complexity of the toy and the activity of a child: the more the toy does, the less the kid does.
A ball can be any number of things.
Fancy toys are, well, fancy.
Tip Three: Sometimes It’s Best To Ignore the Noise
World Cup Fan or a Face Painted Kid at a Birthday Party?
Photo courtesy of Whatleydude (cc) Flickr
If you’re a parent, you know silence can be scarier than noise. If you’re a World Cup fan, you know the Vuvuzela. Like any birthday party, the event will end and the party horns will be put away.
And we might even miss the hoopla.
Tip Four: Referees Are Under-Appreciated
Let’s face it, referees are a lot like parents: they run around as much as the players, they get less recognition, and they get blamed when they screw up.
I only wish I could give my twins yellow cards. And the occasional red card. Mostly at bed time.
Game over.
Tip Five: There Are People Cheering for You
Here’s the schmaltzy tip-du-jour. Just when you feel isolated and like no one knows how much you do, you can usually find support. It might be a Tweep, a neighbour who invites you over to drink her wine, or a cousin who assures you this will pass.
Perhaps it is a beautiful game.
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Any other parenting tips inspired by the World Cup?
Leanne Shirtliffe is the mother of seven-year-old twins, Thing 1 and Thing 2. She lived in Asia for eight years, which turned out to be a build-your-own-family adventure. Leanne writes for Nickelodeon and pens a humour column for The Calgary Herald. She is represented by Jill Marr of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency in California. 
After listening to the vuvuzela, some of those really annoying toys don’t sound so bad.
Great post! I would simply add that the World Cup reminds me that boys will always be boys. This was brought home to me this morning when my husband set off in his pride and joy, his England jersey, to go and watch the match. Me, I’m not so interested now David Beckham is out of the squad, which shows girls will always be girls too
Referees are humans beings: If they make a bad call or they don’t make it at all it doesn’t mean is a bad referee! It’s the same with us and with our kids, if we (or they) make a bad decision in a particular moment it doesn’t mean we’re bad parents or simply bad kids, it’s just that we’re human and we DO make mistakes and that doesn’t make us bad persons!
Another fantastic post! I am a BIG fan of the BALL. Seriously, Theo + ball = happy.
In related news, Theo just discovered clapping. I was showing it off to a group of willing adults, who all clapped back at him. They totally made his night! We really ought to clap for each more.
Beats a vuvu anyday
!
And I agree, I want all games to be Ghana versus Korea or something like that. ABE!!!