Watching Sports With Kids

You may have used to be able to watch as many sports as you wanted. Weekends in the fall may have been filled with football all day, and evenings during the spring and summer may have been filled with baseball. Sports were easy to slip in at most any time as you didn’t have many other responsibilities. After having kids, that will no longer be the case.

Your time will become far more important in terms of how you spend it after having kids. You will have little time that is your own, and very little time to do the things that you want without having to take care of kids. If sports is your thing, then you’ll have to make it a priority in your life, after your kids.

If you watch multiple hours of sports a week, you’re going to need to cut that back to some degree. You’ll no longer be able to watch every football game, or all of the rounds of golf on the weekends. You will have to choose a game or two that you want to watch and limit it to those. If you’re trying to watch all day long, you’ll simply ignore your kids and help them build a lot of resentment towards you.

Depending on how you watch sports, you can turn it on in the background while playing with your kids. But only do this if you know that you will pay attention to your kids while it is on. Most sports lovers are unable to keep their attention on their kids when a game is on - if that is you, then just leave the television off.

My kids don’t mind a football game or basketball game in the background. A lot of times they’ll sit and watch it, but most of the time they’d rather play. One of their favorite things to do is to run around the couch the same as the players on the TV. If I run around with them, then they enjoy it.

As your kids grow older, you may find that they really enjoy watching sports as well. If they’re willing to sit and watch with you, then feel free to let them. However, most kids don’t want to sit and watch sports all day long - they’d rather be out and playing those sports.

Get outside with them and play in the sports that you are watching rather than sitting and watching them all day long. This has a couple of primary benefits: first, you’re spending quality time with your kids and second, you’re moving and being active. Rather than sitting and doing nothing but watching, you're now having a great time with your kids.

In this day and age, it’s really easy to catch the highlights of your favorite games. Missing the games isn’t the end of the world. If you find that you just can’t miss the games, then you may need to take a deeper look at your priorities to determine what’s most important in your life - your family should always come first.

Watching sports can still be something you enjoy after having kids, but don’t expect it to be on the same level as before having kids. Get up and play in those sports with your kids when the opportunity arises.