Of course I think of this after friday but oh well.
DH and I were watching a football game last night (well he was watching it) but I was thinking. If we ever have a son I really don't want him to play football. I would much rather him play baseball or basketball. I have had a cousin get seriously injured from football (he is now a parapalegic) and DH has also ended up in the er because of being hit too hard. If our hypothetical son wants to play I would let him but the whole time I will be sitting there wondering if he is going to be hurt.
DH thinks I'm going to turn into some crazy controlling mom but I just don't want to see my kid hurt. I know this is an irrational fear and it may never happen but the same goes for M. If she plays a sport I am always going to anxious if she's going to get hurt.
Re: My confession
We will not let DS play football. There has been research done lately where they found in autopsies of former football players that repeated brain injuries (which can be caused even by normal hits in the course of a game) causes a disease with long-term effects, including dementia.
http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,64253995001_1957921,00.html
I have heard about this also.
We were watching highlights from games last night and one professional player (can't remember what team he was on) was hit head on and suffered a severe concussion. It just looked awful. I asked DH if he thinks the other player did that on purpose he said he did. Why would I want my child on the field with someone who has no regard for someone else's safety.
DH just says "that's football" but what if someone was seriously injured. My cousin that I mentioned above (he is much older than me) was seriously injured while playing HS football and was paralyed from the waist down. It just scares the crap out of me.
I saw that hit last night too. It looked so awful. The commentators were discussing it after the game. They said the coaches tell the player to hit like that, so it definitely is intentional.
I'm not sure if I'm going to let DS play football or not. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it I suppose.
This is another reason I probably would not have let DS play even if it weren't for these new findings about the real damage small brain injuries can do. I would not want my child to be taught that it is OK to intentionally try to hurt someone for sport (I wouldn't be down for boxing or hockey either).