Missing a child’s sports day
The summer holidays obviously don’t mean a lot to us yet. They will do next year before N starts school, but until then, we’ll be carrying on pretty much as normal. N’s nursery school has finished for the end of the school year, but those two days over the summer holidays, he’ll now be at his day nursery full time.
As the nursery school has finished, they had their sports day last week. To avoid spreading events over a few days for parents, they combined the sports day with a leaving party for those going up to school. And with the weather being wonderful, one of the parents who lives opposite the nursery, offered her garden up for water play afterwards. All made sense to do and worked really well for the nursery, children, and I assume, most of the parents.
But because it was a long event starting before lunch through the afternoon, rather than just a sports day, I wasn’t able to make it. I debated taking the time off to watch the sports day part but then N would have wanted me to stay for the rest and I’d not have been able to get back to work afterwards.
I would have loved to have seen whether he’d actually joined in with the races, and to have seen his face getting stickers for taking part, but hopefully he didn’t really miss me. He’s not yet asked whether we’re coming to places (usually I’ll try where possible, although the OH doesn’t get involved – disgracefully), I think he largely just gets stuck in. He never mentions other parents being there, even though his best friend L’s dad turned up, so maybe he’s just oblivious at the age he is now.
I do miss seeing the photos from his nursery school. They used to use an online journal system so I’d get to login and see daily photos, but now I they use a paper journal. Not as quick for getting updates and seeing visually what he’s been up to. Hopefully they were able to take photos during the day, and I’ll get to see them at some point and feel less guilty for not knowing what he actually got up to that day. I would have asked the nursery staff member who brings him home and looks after him before we get home, how he got on, but the OH had already relieved her before I got home. Annoying on that one day, because he would never think to ask about things like that.
With his day nursery, because the children are there until between 5-6pm, they usually have their events in an afternoon, in the run up to tea. This means it’s less time to take off work, and more chance of being able to get there. I’ve not heard about when their sports day is, but hopefully there will be one, and I’ll be able to get to that one. Given that the last time they tried egg and spoon races at their Easter fun day, N didn’t even want to take part, I’m not holding much hope of him following instructions. He does like to run though, so maybe just straight running would be his forte!
Maybe we’ll have to do a sports day in the garden sometime…there must be enough toy medals floating around the house from various events days he’s taken part in!
Did you make it to your children’s sports days?
No I didn’t go to B’s first sports day (she didn’t have them at preschool or we weren’t invited), but my husband did. We had a moving up picnic the following week and I decided I couldn’t take time off work for both of them so we split them. Fortunately I’ve been able to speak to other Mums about sports day to learn what my husband was not able to tell me 🙂
Handy when you can split the work. Hopefully if it’s a school event, then aunts will be able to report back. I can’t believe the OH would ever turn up to something. I’d imagine I’d struggle to get him to parents evening in future.
Even Daddy P came out of work to see Monkey not joining in with his Sports Day, the timing was 9-10 so worked well for both of us, not sure it will be so easy next year.
I think it definitely helps when timings are either first thing or last thing. I’ve got another year before I need to really worry, although guess there’ll be ‘graduation’ first.
Don’t feel guilty hunny! My mom never could come to any of our sports days and events because she was working and it never did any of us kids any harm or upset us. We were bummed out at the time but got over it. It was mostly to impress our friends and just have fun. Thanks for linking up to Share With Me sorry for the comment delay we had no power for two days. Catching up now. #sharewithme
No worries.
Yes, you’re right. Kids get over it pretty quickly, and most schools would have a lot of working parents anyway. I guess in our village, there’s an awful lot of mums who don’t work who can go to everything.
I’ve made it sometimes and missed others. Strangely I’ve found it harder since I stopped working. When I worked I could go without other children… Now, getting to things means taking at least one other child, who then tries to join in causes chaos…! I enjoy it when I make it, but my 8yo has always been fine if I’ve had to miss something x #ShareWithMe
I can see siblings being in tow being an issue sometimes. I guess a lot of the pressure comes from expectation of schools and other parents that every parent would be there, rather than the children in lots of cases. Thanks for stopping by
Oh what a shame! It is not easy juggling the work/life/kids balance! No matter what you do you end up feeling guilty! 🙂 #sharewithme
You’re so right. At least this one was when he was young. As he gets older I’m sure he’ll want me there.
Juggling work and family life is often difficult, times like this the most. We haven’t yet had to worry about this sort of thing but it will be reality for us soon too! x
And you’ve got 2 to work round. I think it would help if the OH would also share the load on some of these things. Thankfully my work at the moment is only 15 mins away, but I already compress my time to allow for 1 day a week early pick up so it’s hard to fit things in. Hopefully they’ll be spread around the year.