It was my eldest's first 'footy day' today. This means the whole school dresses up in football supporters' gear. Where we live, that implicitly means Aussie Rules, but if you have another religion, just picture your own junior sports day of football/rugby/Irish football/American football/whatever.
This is kindof what the other kids looked like - although in order not to have to chase permission from parents, I've ganked this photo from somewhere else that already got permission:
Football t-shirts, hats, scarves, shorts, all in their own teams, all items of clothing approximately the right size, some signed by football players, many very well used from AusKick on the weekends.
This is what my son ended up wearing:
A Korean soccer t-shirt in Mens XL, numbered with the 2006 world cup team captain.
Were there any other soccer/rugby/Irish football/American football supporters at the school?
No.
I did try to get him a football t-shirt in roughly his size in time for footy day, but I didn't try very hard, ie. I didn't see any in the windows of the op shops (read: thrift stores) I happened to walk past in the week before.
But then my husband and I discussed it, and we figured that it is actually may not be a good thing to spare our son the feeling of being different. He is a bit unusual. We are all a bit unusual. He might as well get used to it.
Nevertheless, I found myself fretting a bit. Had I sent him into the proverbial bear pit? Would he get teased, taunted and ostracised because it didn't fit?
He was just fine. He said he had to explain his t-shirt a bit, but then his friend Jack found a small logo with a tiger on the front of it and told him he was definitely a Tigers fan, and he ended up the captain of the Tigers team in the 5-on-5 games the school ran on the oval.
Just goes to show, if you're a confident enough 5 yr old, you can be a (Caucasian) Korean team captain of an Aussie Rules team.
This is kindof what the other kids looked like - although in order not to have to chase permission from parents, I've ganked this photo from somewhere else that already got permission:
This is what my son ended up wearing:
Were there any other soccer/rugby/Irish football/American football supporters at the school?
No.
I did try to get him a football t-shirt in roughly his size in time for footy day, but I didn't try very hard, ie. I didn't see any in the windows of the op shops (read: thrift stores) I happened to walk past in the week before.
But then my husband and I discussed it, and we figured that it is actually may not be a good thing to spare our son the feeling of being different. He is a bit unusual. We are all a bit unusual. He might as well get used to it.
Nevertheless, I found myself fretting a bit. Had I sent him into the proverbial bear pit? Would he get teased, taunted and ostracised because it didn't fit?
He was just fine. He said he had to explain his t-shirt a bit, but then his friend Jack found a small logo with a tiger on the front of it and told him he was definitely a Tigers fan, and he ended up the captain of the Tigers team in the 5-on-5 games the school ran on the oval.
Just goes to show, if you're a confident enough 5 yr old, you can be a (Caucasian) Korean team captain of an Aussie Rules team.
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