Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to get bored with ds going on and ON about football??

47 replies

CocktailQueen · 17/02/2014 18:50

He is 6.

He is obsessed with football - playing it, watching it, reading about it, collecting Match Attax endlessly.

This is all fine up to a point - but all his conversation is about football now! He wakes up in the morning talking about it and goes to bed the same. He turns the conversation back to football. He just wants to read football books at bedtime. I'm BORED of bloody football.

I want my lovely little boy back, who was interested in everything - park, playing, playmobil, animals, wildlife - not just kicking a sodding ball round a pitch.

If he's not playing football at home -we've banned him from playing with a ball in the house -he's too strong - he's kicking a balloon around. All. The. Time.

AIBU to be bored and to encourage him to do other things than football? This week he's playing football all day Weds, tomorrow afternoon, and has a playdate with a friend when they will play. I want to do other things!! Am so sad, as I am not enjoying spending time with him at the moment.

Any suggestions? And AIBU??

OP posts:
KatieScarlett2833 · 17/02/2014 18:52

Good luck. I never found an answer. DS is currently filtering Uni offers on the basis of their football facilities Hmm
He will be studying Physics Smile

sadbodyblue · 17/02/2014 18:55

er boys do get obsessive about things. I remember with pain the Pokemon months. I swear it was all my lads talked about.

still footi is a healthy sport and look at it this way being obsessed with footi hasn't done David Beckham any harm.

Original poster
CocktailQueen · 17/02/2014 18:55

Wah!!!!! Thanks so much Hmm

It's great to have an interest, and we support him in that. I would just like to be able to talk about something other than footy in my OWN HOUSE!

OP posts:
Whitewhine · 17/02/2014 18:57

We clearly have the same son cocktail I could have written your post myself!

VelvetStrider · 17/02/2014 18:58

yanbu. Football is both dull as cowshit and deeply offensive as an industry. Not much you can do about what he does and talks about with his mates, but can you explain to him that it is not a subject you want to talk about and cut the conversation sharp whenever he brings it up?
Are other family members football obsessed too? Is he being brainwashed encouraged to love football to the exclusion of everything else?

KatieScarlett2833 · 17/02/2014 19:00

Hah!
DH was a player, he still coaches and is equally obsessed. Neither DS or DH actually support a team. They will enthuse over ANY sodding game. DS has a part time sodding job at our local ground in addition to playing football for school, club and fives on a Wednesday, training 3 times a week...
I used to like football but this pair have killed it for me stone dead.
That is why I have my own sky box.

MamaPain · 17/02/2014 19:07

My DH is 42 and has not grown out of this, in fact more worryingly my Dad and Grandad have both been like this to an extent their entire lives.

DH travels all over the world to watch football, he is totally obsessed by it and I sometimes think work, family and any other topic are just fillers until he can once again discuss the beautiful game.

One of the criteria when buying a house was how long/easy would it be to get to White Hart Lane.

My boys have all been kicking balls since they could barely walk, football kits from birth and are now equally obsessed. They even have Fifa so when they aren't physically playing, their hands and minds are.

It will get slightly better, but so far I've only found girls to be a real distraction, everything else is insignificant in comparison to football.

Bowlersarm · 17/02/2014 19:10

Ds1 hasn't grown out of it, totally obsessed since he was that age. Always kicking a ball, in and out of the house. Drives me nuts. He's 18 now, and trying to make a career out of it, with a degree of success, I have to say.

paddyclampo · 17/02/2014 19:15

My DS is the same - he's 10! His friends are the same too! I'd say it was fairly standard I'm afraid :)

KatieScarlett2833 · 17/02/2014 19:17

I tried, I really did.
Years of gymnastics, basketball, tennis, swimming, outward bound classes. Not to mention theatre, craft and dance groups.
Made no difference whatsoever, and he loved all of the above. He just loves football more... Hmm

LadySybilVimes · 17/02/2014 19:19

My ds gets obsessed with things. It's never been football, but things like dinosaurs, star wars, star trek, lego, lord of the rings etc. If it had been football I would have been able to fob him off to dh to talk endlessly.

I think obsessions are fairly ordinary boy behaviour unfortunately.

YellowDinosaur · 17/02/2014 19:21

Are you me?

It could be worse, I have 2 boys at it!

Pink01 · 17/02/2014 19:21

Does he play for a team Cocktail?

My two DS are the same (ditto DH) but I have found it to be a really positive thing.

Rahahaharubbish · 17/02/2014 19:28

Ha! I have two sons and a daughter and they all bloody play football every Sunday! Daughter coaches another team too so our weekends are pretty much spent standing in muddy fields.

My husband was a huge football fan when I met him (season ticket holder to Prem team that following the birth of kids he had to give up... he's never quite forgiven them!) so I guess I should have known what I was getting in to Grin

I guess my point is, there are worse things he could be obsessing over - you can use football to highlight lots of positives, healthy eating, literacy skills (get him to retell the story of a game he watched and then perhaps when older, write it down. If he's into Match Attax too then get him to organise his folder!), numeracy (how many points does a win get his team, adding it all up). Sounds daft but if he's interested in it then go with it, and turn it to your advantage. I think kids learn so much from being involved in team sports - and with all three of mine, it's not limited to just football anymore. My eldest lad seriously needs to find some extra hours in the day/week to do everything he wants to do Smile

Rahahaharubbish · 17/02/2014 19:29

But yeah, mostly... don't expect him to grow out of it Wink

KatieScarlett2833 · 17/02/2014 19:30

All whinging aside, I agree it has not been a bad thing.
DS is fitter than a flea, has never known a moments boredom, made tons of good friends, has a very calm temperament (works out aggression while playing) and sleeps like the dead.
Also, now he talks football AT his very lovely girlfriend these days Wink

clary · 17/02/2014 19:32

Sounds daft but if he's interested in it then go with it, and turn it to your advantage. I think kids learn so much from being involved in team sports

This. It can be so positive - please footy moaners, turn it on its head. Your children/husbands are doing something active that will give them a social and fitness-related interest for all of their lives. That's a real positive!

sadbodyblue · 17/02/2014 19:36

Velvet do you have children? if so are you so controlling about all their interests? you would cut the conversation short as it's not something you are interested in. wow.

Lollyheart · 17/02/2014 19:39

Same in my house too Grin dh and my 3 ds , ds3 is only 2 but already showing a keen interest .
I actually enjoy it myself thankfully Smile

Original poster
CocktailQueen · 17/02/2014 19:55

Thanks all!! Glad it's just not me :)

DS plays for a team. Training Thurs eve, training Fri eve, match Saturday! No other out-of-school activities -though he'd enjoy tennis,. dodgeball, swimming etc. Sigh.

He is very good (unbiased!). Natural talent - he's scored more goals than the rest of his team out together in matches in the last year and his coach think he'll be 'spotted' pretty soon.

And I am pleased that he loves a sport, Match Attax are good for numeracy and sharing and collecting skills, football is a good team game and it's lovely to be part of a team and to learn to play together, win or lose. It really is.

DH is quite football obsessed too, and they do bond over football.

But if anyone talked about any one subject all the time, I'd get bored!!

Thanks all - good to know it's not just me. So should I tell him he;'s boring me when he does, or be kind? Make a joke of it? (I try to, but...)

OP posts:
Costacoffeeplease · 17/02/2014 19:57

YANBU I detest football with a passion, hate the game and everything about it - I just wouldn't engage with it at all - I would ban it if I could Grin

SomethingkindaOod · 17/02/2014 20:03

Try steam trains. It started with fecking Thomas the fecking tank engine and moved onto real trains. The wheel lay out, the history of each engine, then not so DH introduced him to the wonderful world of N gauge trains.
Dear God, the kids 13 and I'm almost grateful when he changes the subject to his second favourite obsession. Which is cricket.

LiegeAndLief · 17/02/2014 20:51

Oh god this is my ds (except he's 7). He has memorised sections of commentary and walks round the house endless commentating on real or imaginary matches. He makes up tournaments and then insists on reading all the endless scores to me... I have been known to answer "not really, love" cheerfully when he asks whether I'm listening. Even dh is bored now.

On Boxing Day I found myself reading about the rise of professionalism in football in 1887 for a bedtime story.

Thank god I have another child who so far isn't really obsessed with anything.

LiegeAndLief · 17/02/2014 20:55

Oh, and he loves having conversations that go:

What's your favourite football team?

Oh, I don't know really love, I'm not that into football.

Oh come on mum! You must have one! Go on, just pick one!

Ok, erm, Manchester City.

No! No not them! They're rubbish! Your favourite team is probably Chelsea.

Ok. My favourite team is Chelsea.

Great! What's your second favourite team?

sandyballs · 17/02/2014 21:00

Same here but mine are 13 year old girls. One is currently playing fifa on Xbox. They both play for a local team.