to not understand why so many local parents didn't take their children to the o/para/lympics?

[LongStory]

So the Olympic park is fairly local to me, I'm not a massive sports fan but this is a once-in-a-lifetime something special. I took the kids to a few events especially at the paralympics where it was easier to get tickets. They didn't cost much and in fact most of them only cost £1.40 if you deduct the cost of a child's travelcard.

I had to be a bit organised - buy the tickets, book days off work, sort out/swap childcare for the children who were too young, pack lunches for the day, get up early etc etc. It wasn't rocket science and it didn't cost a fortune. Cheaper than a trip to the movies.

Now we're back to school I'm amazed that lots of seemingly on-the-ball parents haven't bothered to do this, with no clear reason, or no regret. I don't understand (a) why so many didn't, and (b) why this makes me soooo cross.

You were 'surprised by the strength of my emotional reaction'? To what? People, errrrr, not doing something they didn't want to do? How very peculiar. What's it to you? And what are you doing having such extreme emotional reactions to stuff that's bog all to do with you?

Ooohhh I'm sorry I had feelings, Madge! Mainly sad ones that kids I know had missed out on a good experience. But I realise it's not that simple which is why I'm exploring it here....

There were certainly plenty of kids there when I went - all the buggy parks in the stadium were full and they had to start storing them in the infornation kiosks, it was practically all families as far as I could tell

We took our 2 dd's (7&2) and they loved it.

Paralympics tickets were easy and cheap to get hold of earlier in the year (ie a while before the Olympics) I researched the categories so we knew when we could see Oscar Pistorius and we got 4 tickets for the stadium for 50 quid including travel cards. But you had to be organised enough to plan a few months in advance.

A good experience in life for people varies. Sport isn't everyone's cup of tea. Yabu to feel sorry for peoples children. You don't know the thought process that parents went through to decide whether or not to go, you don't know if its because someone can't be bothered. Maybe for you its once in a life time but not everyone else. I can appreciate the athletic ability of every competitor but to watch them for the day would make me want to pu my eyeballs out.