Is it wrong to play 'fetch' with your kids?

My kids love to play outside. They also love to play various games while outside. Tennis in a favorite. Cricket as well. Sometimes we play other games like riding bikes in races, hide and seek, catch, etc.

The other day we were playing ‘tennis’. My son can hit the ball pretty well, and has reasonable control. My daughter can hit it if you toss it just right for her (read as toss the ball in to the face of the racket, timing the toss with her swing of the racket causing the ball to hit the racket, rather than the racket to hit the ball). When it was my turn to hit, the kids both went to return the ball to me. This quickly turned in to a competition to get the ball first, which quickly deteriorated in to me hitting the ball and them both going to ‘fetch’ it.

I play fetch with my dogs. Well, the one plays fetch, while the other one plays keep away. Playing fetch with my kids seems a little out of place, but they love it.

So is it wrong to play fetch with your kids?

Only a daddy

This coming weekend our family is going to go to Singapore for a few days. Long boring story, but it relates to our visa status here. In preparation for this trip, we were planning what things we wanted to do over the weekend there. There is an aquarium there that is apparently quite nice, and one of the things you can do there is to ‘swim’ with dolphins. This is an educational thing where you learn about dolphins up close, and are allowed in to the water to some degree with them in the process of learning up close.

When I mentioned to the kids there was a place to swim with dolphins, they were very excited. They then took off on a story of how this would all work. Here is there version of events to come.

“Daddy will swim out in to the sea and try to find some dolphins. He has to learn to speak Dolphin in order to be able to convince the dolphins to come to the beach so we can play with them. If he sees a shark, he will have to swim ‘jet-fast’ to get away, and try to find a dolphin to help him. If a shark comes while he is riding on a dolphin, then the dolphin has to jump high, ‘cause they can jump higher than sharks to keep daddy safe.”

While the above plan seems sound to a 5 and 7 year old, there are several parts that are worrisome to me. 1) Swimming in to the open sea is a bit scary. I like swimming, but open water is a different kind of swimming than High School Swim Team. 2) Leaning to speak Dolphin is not going to be easy. There are likely not as many ‘Learn to Speak Dolphin in 30 Minutes’ courses as there are for other languages. 3) Sharks? Ummm, about that . . . . . . . . .

When asked why mommy can’t be the one to implement the above plan, the kids response was that only daddy’s can speak Dolphin. How silly of me. I should have known.

So, we will see how the weekend goes.

Criteria

Let me ask a question. What criteria should one use to determine higher education opportunities for one’s children? Cost? Location? Socio-political leaning? Degrees offered? Religious affiliation? Reputation?

While all of those might be valid, let me add one that perhaps you had not thought of. Spelling. Allow me to elaborate.

The other day while sitting waiting for my son’s school bus to drop him off, I was noticing the signage on various vehicles passing by. At the time of day I sit and wait for him there are a significant number of buses going by from various educational institutions. Some technical schools, some primary education school, some colleges, etc.

While taking note of the various names and types of the institutions, I could not help but notice that several of the college buses had misspelled the word ‘college’ on the back or sides of their buses. Some were spelled ‘colleg’, others were spelled ‘colege’, and one other was ‘coolege’. That then begs the question, can a college that can’t spell college really be the best option for my child?

As humorous as it might be (especially if one’s own children are not studying in said institutions), perhaps before deciding on a college for one’s children to attend, take a walk around their buses (or their campus, etc.) and see if they spelled their words right.

No apologies for not putting anything on here for so long. No excuses about being busy. No commitments to being more regular in posting. Just simply . . . . I am back . . . . . for now.