This weekend the FISAF Nationals were held at Haileybury. This morning I had the wonderful privelage of giving up my Sunday to help marshal for this event. However during my duties I came across an abundance of what are often referred to as “Stage Mums”. These are parents who practically live through their children, and with many of these events its not unusual to see a parent highlighting the possible consequences of not winning. Some of the ones I heard today were “you’ll never get sponsored if you lose” and “we spent all this money on airfares and accommodation…”. Now I have always considered sport at a junior level to be something that the kid enjoys, be it football, aerobics or tennis, yet some of these parents seem to take it way too seriously and pretty much suck the fun right out of it. The poor kids look terrified and don’t really enjoy being up on stage performing.

Overall it was a pretty easy day, and better yet I receive compensation for my time, which I don’t often receive when I generously donate my time to Haileybury.