The weekend off was quite nice. After the busy week we’ve had (more in my next entry) it was good to spend some time with the family.

Well, my wife had to work on Saturday which meant daddy day care mode was initiated. Tennis, swimming, library, and some (board)games at home.

The tennis session was strange as I saw a lot of new kids coming along. This is obviously great as it gets kids out of the house to exercise. The downside is that those kids are all beginners which meant that our son gets bored as they struggle to keep up with the rallies.

Swimming, library and gaming went ahead without a hitch.

Sunday morning, we left the house early (9.30am) to go and play tennis in the park. The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) have tennis court everywhere and recently – two of our sorry-looking ones – have been refurbished and for a yearly fee of £30 or so you get access to them.

So, we played tennis for about 2hrs and then went to the park and into town with the scooters. We stayed out longer than anticipated as by around 2.45pm we discovered the Model train society had put up their model trains in the park and were giving rides on them. This is the usual occurrence from Spring to Autumn every Sunday weather dependent.

By the time we got home is was well after 3pm and his country training session would start at 4pm.

A quick snack, some calming down TV and off we went again.

Normally my wife just goes by herself there however this time she insisted I come along. Our son had been invited to actually represent his County in the U8 Cup – coming up next week somewhere in Cornwall, I think.

All the players there yesterday (girls & boys) are all playing next week in the same team together.

The first part of the training went along nicely as they incorporate fun little games for warm up which engages everybody and it’s also competitive.

The second part is then more playing and more technical stuff. They then were playing singles against each other relying on each other (remember they are all U8 players) to count the points, be honest about a ball being out etc.

Parents sit along the courts in a slightly elevated position and can literally see everything. Under no circumstances it is ok for a parent to intervene if there is a dispute between the two youngsters on the court. They need to sort it out between them and/or get one of the coaching staff involved.

Our son is very good in called out any wrongdoing and then gets upset when that is not going on despite him “complaining”. In addition to this if the above then leads to him losing it’s double frustrating.

In the first single match he was playing well however his opponent was “morally flexible” with his ball call outs and that then got to our son. Still, counting the points between them the father of the other kid then got involved and told his son (well, shouting across) to keep an eye on the score as our son was apparently counting wrongly.

I think it took every inch of fibre in the body for my wife not to say anything. “Funnily” our son shouted back the right score and didn’t seem intimidated.

However, this sort of behaviour just bullies the kid which is obviously not great. If this sort of behaviour is going on next week that could be an interesting day out.

I did say to my wife that we shouldn’t really sitting where we were sitting and should have just dropped off our kids and go to the cafe and let them play.

In the whole two-hour session this father was the only one who interfered, and the sad things is that he either didn’t realise what he did or (and that is more likely) he knew exactly what he was doing, and this just doesn’t set a great example.

After the single our son came up to us and was visibly frustrated and upset which was a theme for the rest of the session.

It’s tough to accept a loss and it’s even tougher when it happens through injustice. When you are 6 years old the world is very black and white. Despite them all being teammates they are also all being very competitive and some of them want to win at all costs.

Once at home we had dinner, shower, brushing teeth and then bed – in that order. He was asleep within 10 minutes.

I did “discuss” the incident with my wife, and we are trying to make him understand that this might happens occasionally. As parents we weren’t sure if we should have said something at the time. I guess we could have but what would this have achieved? Training disruption? Arguments in front of the kids, coaching staff, and other parents?

Nobody wants to make a fuzz but in hindsight we probably should have taken him aside and chat to the dad although not sure that would have made any difference (Just a gut feeling if you know what I mean).

Let’s see how next weekend is going to be.