I was forced to go along to every game at Kardinia Park from when I was about 4 to when I was 10, I used to bring along books and read them because I was so bored, sometimes kids just aren't interested. Let them wait until they get old enough to show more interest I reckon, it backfired badly with me, though I just never liked Geelong anyway.

Most kids have a notoriously short attention span. Mostly their interest in anything will wane after about 10 minutes. My kids will watch tv while reading magazines and playing DS mostly because it's difficult to grab their attention with anything much for too long.

My kids are interested in the footy because me and the Mrs both are, but they just want to know who won - they don't want the details and are not partuicularly fussed by watching the actual action.

So if you want to take your kid to the footy don't stress too much if she / he isn't watching any or much of it. I can guarantee you that the No1 thing in the kid's mind is getting to do special stuff with Dad, regardless of how bored shitless she is with the details.

Fullmont's son is a veteran now. At nearly 7 months of age he has been to each game this season & a couple of the pre-season games. We just take it in turns nursing him, mum feeds him & he sleeps for a quarter & then he generally wakes up for the last. I'm not sure he'll be that easy to manage when he's 1 or 2 but at the moment he's an absolute gun at the footy!!

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Witty signature required.

Take along some pens and paper and have them see who can write down the most colourful swear word used by the crowd.

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"One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds." - Frank Zappa

The sexy squad have already taught him all he knows!

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Witty signature required.

Hey................

why not get the kids to watch the game................?


kindest regards single tommi

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that'siti'mnotchangingthistagain......!

cos that would make too much sense.

we're trying to get kids who arent interested in being somewhere wanting to be there every week, dammit!

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"In fairness it did seem in the early days of the draft teams would just pick a name totally at random out of a hat. I'm pretty sure we picked James Cook at #2 one year. The mediocre forward, not the explorer" - Me, 12/9/2011

Carlton 2012: Lets remind them why they once feared the Dark.

Hmmmm..............

i see Pee Biddy..................!


kindest regards tommi













still a big fan of the whole.............."watching the game" thingy
though............!

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that'siti'mnotchangingthistagain......!

havent taken lil miss grro to the game yet but am very proud she can do the ol - dada da dadah !! and can say go juddy and go blues at 15 months old

trying to get her to sit still on the couch and watch a game ???

FORGET IT !!

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

I bring my nearly 3 year old every-week, he's bored before the bounce, also 3 of the 5 games his attended we have played in the white jumper which has made it hard for him to understand!

I will only get into the ground 10 minutes before first bounce, load up on snacks, go for a kick @ 1/2 & 3/4Q time & having my brother & a mate sitting all together with their kids has helped break the boredom!

As for last Sunday against the filth my boy didnt have his arvo nap so he became ratty even after we did all of the above, he lasted until the last 2 minutes of the game & fell asleep on me & when the final siren sounded & the crowd roared it scared the living daylights out of him, but i stood him on his chair & we belted out the theme song!

wish it was our home game this weekend so I could try some of these ideas.

Thanks all & I'll keep you updated.

don't take her every week. make it a treat. get her face painted and maybe buy her a badge or 2. also get her the kids footy record. don't make her hate having to go. if she starts to like the footy by the time she is 9 or 10 she'll want to go every week and she'll grow out of the i am bored stage

Yep, that's exactly what I did.

It was disappointing to me when Shelbs was younger and didn't really want to come much. I wanted, and in a way just expected, that she would have the same passion as I did. In the end I had to just give her time and she didn't come for a couple of years. She was bored and I wasn't able to really enjoy my time either.

She'll be 12 next month and this is probably her third season of choosing to want to come. She loves it.

But having said that, all kids are different. We started taking my little brother when he was about 4 and he was interested straight away and was never bored.

Well my brother's two little boys, who are all based in Brisbane, caught the game live on Channel 7.

While daddy was jumping and yelling and carrying on, they thought something had hurt him and started crying.

They are 2 and 3 respectively and as Mandy said, all kids are different.

If they were at the game, I'm sure my nephews would have been traumatised.

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“It is a state of mind, a system of belief, a way of seeing the world, a deep faith that, because you are Carlton, you belong to something great.” - Mike Fitzpatrick articulating what Out of the Blue means.

great thread thanks! There are some good tips in here. We've only taken our kids once, because they pretty much resemble my avatar ATM

It was my birthday last year and they were pretty good. DD loved the outing and the kids tattoos, she took her Carlton teddy bear and waved him madly. DS loved yelling "Go Blues" and he cheered loudly at the goals scored (ours and thiers ) Hubby was great taking them for laps of TD. He says it's more interesting than the game anyway

My hubby took a great photo at 1/2 time of the 3 of us with DD waving her bear and me breastfeeding DS up on level 3 of TD.

I also kept the Record for them so they can look back and know which one was their 1st game (Pity we lost).

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Housewife,
mother of three,
navy blue always for me!

I was one of 6 kids, and only 3 of us was ever interested in footy, even 'tho Dad was a fanatic who never missed a game.

Some kids just aren't interested....it's the way it is.

My Daughter is not interested....never was.

My Wife is a Carlton fanatic.....her only sister hates footy!

I take my kids to the footy just about every week (SANFL ). A 6 y/o, 3 y/o and a 17 month old. They just run around on the grass, go out on the oval and generally run amok. As soon as I take one or all to a game at Footy Park, forget about it ! Nowhere to run, can't kick the footy etc etc.

Try a few Bullant games and see if the interest is there when she can run around (I'm assuming the VFL grounds have a bit of grass mounding similar to SANFL ??). If she can move around whilst you watch the footy, then she may just take an interest instead of being stuck in a seat. Once the interest is up then wammo back to the G or the Dome and into it !!

I also take my eldest one to the A-League and she sits through 90 minutes of Soccer no worries, it's the other 90 minute extra when at a footy game that's the killer....

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Go to http://www.snoutslouts.org/ for a look at the mighty GFC...