Saintly Parenting

[Persevering Saint]

Hi everyone,

I was thinking, many of us are parents here. How are you going bringing your kids into the Saints faithful? Do you have any funny stories of methods you use to do it (hanging a picture of Riewoldt next to the crib, etc)? Do you have any funny stories of your kids experiences with following the Saints?

For example, I remember hearing a story of a guy who started taking his daughter to the football when she was about 5. They'd go every week. One time they arrived late, and she said to him: "DAD! We're late! Did we miss them running out on to the ground and through the banner?!" He told her that, sadly, they had. Then she burst into tears and moaned, "OH, now I won't get to sing the song at ALL today!"

... That's a kid who's learned what it is to follow the Saints much of the time!

 

[Persevering Saint]

Another example is with my 4yo daughter a few weeks back. I'd been showing her the Futurefest videos as they popped up. She loves Eli, so I knew she'd take an interest in his video, but she'd seemed a bit ho-hum about the rest. Anyway, two weeks after his video, she pipes up and tells me that she had a dream in which Spencer White told her that she'd play for the Saints one day! Now, I didn't even think she'd remembered his name, but she specifically said it, without any coaching or hints from me: "Spencer White came into my dream and told me I'd play for the Saints one day!" I also didn't have the heart to tell her it's boys-only at that level... and hey, in 14 years things might have changed, so who knows?

 

[Nutsngum]

Another example is with my 4yo daughter a few weeks back. I'd been showing her the Futurefest videos as they popped up. She loves Eli, so I knew she'd take an interest in his video, but she'd seemed a bit ho-hum about the rest. Anyway, two weeks after his video, she pipes up and tells me that she had a dream in which Spencer White told her that she'd play for the Saints one day! Now, I didn't even think she'd remembered his name, but she specifically said it, without any coaching or hints from me: "Spencer White came into my dream and told me I'd play for the Saints one day!" I also didn't have the heart to tell her it's boys-only at that level... and hey, in 14 years things might have changed, so who knows?

Well if she grows to be 6 foot 2 and 85kgs she might have a chance!

 

[CALL ME SNAKE]

My son was 4yrs old first time I took him.
He was very excited in the few days leading up to it and kept saying over and over "we're still going to the football on the weekend arent we dad?" And id have to keep saying "yes mate we're still going"
Anyway we finally get to the game and his little eyes are popping out of his head at all the other people dressed in Saints gear. He was excited when the players ran out and the crowd cheered and clapped and he loved clapping along and singing the song before the game.
He was happy as a pig in poo
Then just after the opening bounce we got a very dodgey free kick paid against us and all the people around us stood up and started booing and abusing the umpire.
My son looked puzzled and said to me
" i dont understand Dad. We're at the footy so why the hell is everybody so angry"

 

[12Chill]

Uh... the old man is a Richmond supporter. When I was 5 years old I 'changed' and started going for the Saints. No stories for me on how he bought me up a Saints fan... that was all me I guess he failed, so I think I'll have to push a little more for my boy when I have one to make sure he doesn't change on me haha.

 

[Barrels]

Lenny-signed guernsey, Saints scarf, dummy & booties and a baby membership.

How old is he you ask? 5 weeks mother******s. Yo.

 

[SaintTwitch]

Well my 6 year old son is just starting to get in to supporting the saints, unfortunately I split with his mum when he was younger and I couldnt have as much input however, my 3 year old boy has been from day one, learnt most of his words from the footy, he now yells Ball with everyone else, cheers goals and wears his saints scarf wherever he goes he had footy week at his daycare GF week and he may or may not have called a kid wearing a freo jumper a 'flog' - I deny any accusations claiming that I taught him that

 

[Kildonan]

I have 5 step children who were of varying degrees of maturity when I first met Karen
The kids are all grown up now. The eldest daughter has lived with us the least and she follows Adelaide (where she did a lot of growing up).
The rest are all Saints fans, two are fiercely so. My wife is too and just so you understand how much so - she included a phrase about the Saints in our wedding vows. I think my success in bringing the kids into the Saints fold was due in part the passion I showed in my support for them, and my inclusion of the kids in the things that they could share having a saintly theme. Two of the boys and the youngest daughter played footy, so we joined the North Mackay Saints. These clubs wear the St Kilda colours, and they often shared the passion for the St Kilda saints as well as their home grown saints team.

I bought them all memberships and despite not using these to their fullest (because we were 3000 km away) we did use them a bit. The kids still have some of the badges and cards as well as the scarves and beanies that these memberships provided.

 

[Mindtraveller]

I'm still too young, but this is family related. Sister came home from Footy day at the school she teaches at in her boyfriends hawks guernsey. Her christmas present this year will be a saints one

 

[joop]

My parents took me to the local Safeway when I was about 2. They were selling stuffed animals of all the clubs so my parents let me choose.
I chose a swan, but they'd just relocated so my parents didn't let it fly.
Dad being essendon forced it on me, but being a mummas boy I went with the saints. I was absolutely in love from then, mainly with the man in the number 7.
25 years later me & the girlfriend have had discussions (arguments) about our future kids.
I'll be ******* damned if they ever wear hawthorn s**t. I think I'll just constantly take them to games early, close to the fence so they can watch the players run out.
Bought my nephew a saints scarf too, but he goes for the saints , bombers, hawks, eagles and the Richmond tigers.

 

[Defacto]

my kids are:
5 in nov
4 in may
1 in jan

bought all of them memberships at birth. was pretty excited about them watching the footy with me

now comes the problem, boy 5s favorite thing in the world is thomas the tank engine. what color is thomas..blue. stupid me referred to norf during this years essendon final as the "blue team" then told him they have a thomas playing for them, in lindsay thomas. kind of pumped them up given i wanted them to beat essendon. anyways since then he hasnt shut up about the "blue team" with "thomas" when i ask him about football

loves the subi lions because we regularly go watch the WAFL and he hasnt yet understood theres a difference between AFL and WAFL

so when i ask him about his favorite team its "the blue team and lions"

conveniently the father in law is a roos fans, which makes it harder when the mother in law and father in law find it funny to try and seduce him over to the roos

i can see it being very hard to keep them on the saints path when there is very little involvement from the club towards interstate supporters, let alone junior interstate members

 

[dewah07]

pretty much everyone in my family is a saint so i had no choice, its easy being born in '94 to be a saints supporter, this is the first real crappy stretch i can remember and even this isn't terrible.

what makes it weirder is i dont know a st.kilda without Roo tbh. i remember going to the football when i was 4,5,6 but since i was 6 to now 20 hes pretty much grown up with me. that goes for the likes of lenny (who i did shed a tear at his final home game this year). so roo cant retire, it would be too bizarre

 

[CALL ME SNAKE]

pretty much everyone in my family is a saint so i had no choice, its easy being born in '94 to be a saints supporter, this is the first real crappy stretch i can remember and even this isn't terrible.

what makes it weirder is i dont know a st.kilda without Roo tbh. i remember going to the football when i was 4,5,6 but since i was 6 to now 20 hes pretty much grown up with me. that goes for the likes of lenny (who i did shed a tear at his final home game this year). so roo cant retire, it would be too bizarre

Yeah its nice to grow up with a player you idolise. I was like that with Trevor Barker, but its tuff when they finish up. I felt a bit lost when Barks retired and i must admit i cried for the great man when he passed.
My son is like you with Roo. Think he was 5 when he got Roo's number on his back , and now he is doing exams just about to finish high school. So Roo was a big part of his life.
Although my sons got his own life with friends and different hobbies nowdays so he doesnt really go to the footy anymore. But he still has a big Nick Riewoldt poster on his bedroom wall

 

[Barrels]

I still go - most of the time - with my old fella and brother.

We've now added our wives and his daughter, and we'll be adding my son in 2015.

We've been in the same seats at Etihad now for 14 years, including keeping a seat spare for our beloved Grandfather* who passed away in 2009. Footy is a magical thing sometimes.

Mum remains disinterested

*wasnt actually related; long story, but an amazing man and I still miss him.

 

[Saintos The ITK]

My 23 year old daughter came home from her friends place one day when she was about 10 and informs me that she was an Essendon supporter. I said like @@@@ you are , no matter what you say or think you're a Sainter born and bred. She has been ever since.

 

[Barrels]

My 23 year old daughter came home from her friends place one day when she was about 10 and informs me that she was an Essendon supporter. I said like @@@@ you are , no matter what you say or think you're a Sainter born and bred. She has been ever since.

Yep. I came home around about the age of 6 and told my old fella I wanted to go for Hawthorn, cos my best friend went for them, and they were great and we were... not.

His response: 'Really?.... There's the door'...

 

[Fred]

I (and my 3 siblings) inherited Saintship from my parents and my father from his parents. That takes us back to the beginning of the VFL. There are three generations after me. My son was never interested in footy and his offspring follow a strange code in NSW that I know nothing about. My daughter for some reason sort of followed Carlton. She's now a saint as are 2 or 3 of her offspring. The rest follow an assortment of teams including the pies and swans. The next generation is too young to care.

 

[Jack Stevens]

My dad got me onto the Saints pretty much through sympathy. My mum went for Essendon, my brother went for Essendon, and my sister went for Essendon. I even inherited my brother's toddler-sized Essendon jumper at one point. But I think that dad realised that he was about to lose his last chance, and started to take more of an interest in footy again to get me to leave the dark side. I more or less chose St Kilda so that my dad wasn't alone in his misery.

Now, my brother has no interest in footy, my mum tries to keep up with what's happening but ultimately doesn't care, and my sister's jumped to the Saints and has finally started going to games. So from what was looking like an Essendon family in early days, we're now very much St Kilda.

 

[cartwright]

Hi everyone,

I was thinking, many of us are parents here. How are you going bringing your kids into the Saints faithful? Do you have any funny stories of methods you use to do it (hanging a picture of Riewoldt next to the crib, etc)? Do you have any funny stories of your kids experiences with following the Saints?

For example, I remember hearing a story of a guy who started taking his daughter to the football when she was about 5. They'd go every week. One time they arrived late, and she said to him: "DAD! We're late! Did we miss them running out on to the ground and through the banner?!" He told her that, sadly, they had. Then she burst into tears and moaned, "OH, now I won't get to sing the song at ALL today!"

... That's a kid who's learned what it is to follow the Saints much of the time!

I have no kids, but a lot of nephews/nieces.
Unfortunately my sisters are married to members of the filth, and I had no chance of winning them over.
But one nephew, who followed my brother, as a saints fan.... well.. he gets far better presents at Christmas.....

 

[Persevering Saint]

Well if she grows to be 6 foot 2 and 85kgs she might have a chance!

Don't laugh. She's actually the 99th percentile in height and 95th percentile in weight. She's pretty much a mini-giant. She'll probably be even able to satisfy Barrell's requirements for a tall forward!

 

[Barrels]

Don't laugh. She's actually the 99th percentile in height and 95th percentile in weight. She's pretty much a mini-giant. She'll probably be even able to satisfy Barrell's requirements for a tall forward!

I'm game if the AFL is...

 

[Nutsngum]

Don't laugh. She's actually the 99th percentile in height and 95th percentile in weight. She's pretty much a mini-giant. She'll probably be even able to satisfy Barrell's requirements for a tall forward!

Not the thread for it really but it will be interesting one day when a girl has the physical attributes to match up on guys at AFL level, and you cant tell me there arent a few out there, and wants to play at the highest level. I mean, by what right should they be stopped from trying? The women's top league is barely a blip on the radar compared to even VFL so cant even really claim equal but separate.

 

[goodie23]

The kids in my grade were pissed off when I brought in a Riewoldt growth chart. By now every single one of them's measured themselves on it and compared heights with Nick...

 

[Nutsngum]

The kids in my grade were pissed off when I brought in a Riewoldt growth chart. By now every single one of them's measured themselves on it and compared heights with Nick...

So whats his height on this chart? Would be good to finally officially know.

 

[Trojan_Saint]

My first son is 9 days old and at his newborn photo shoot was sporting a mini Saints scarf with a Lenny Hayes button on it. Absolute gold.