Results tagged “football” from Birmingham Mail - Bad Dad

My 13-year-old lad is a good, old fashioned boy.

He likes nothing better than playing footie in the park until after dark, coming home for food, going out again and then refusing to shower.

He's got a kind temperament but is fiercely loyal and reacts badly if his dignity is challenged.

So when he emerged from defence with the ball at his feet in a Sunday league game only to stand on the ball (we've all done it) and a rival player laughed at him, I cringed.

ALEX, my 12-year-old lad, has always been the quietest of the children.

Unlike the eldest his attitude is that he doesn't feel the need to shout out loud unless he's got something worth saying.

He's cool, self contained, single minded and obsessed by his football...but because we hear little about school we automatically fear the worst.

It's taken me four years but I've finally plucked up the courage to make a confession in the hope that it will somehow absolve me of guilt.

It surrounds an event I'm really not at all proud of when my eldest lad was aged 10.

It's Day Two without the boys now and I'm getting the distinct feeling of being outnumbered.

My wife has given me a list of 'chores', my daughter Jess has handed me a list of things we have to do "because you're always spending time with the boys at football" and I'm strangely missing being muttered and grunted at by the lads.

It's the little things I'm missing - the moaning about a late equaliser, the constant hubbub of arguing, the smell of stinking socks and even the sniping over pocket money.

I can't wait to be called a "mean git" again by Nick or to be snarled at to "get out of my room" by Alex and to be quite frank, I'm dreading the day they leave for good.

Then I'll be marooned in a world of fashion, perfume, skin creams and shopping.

If you're reading this in a foreign internet cafe boys, please hurry home.The place definitely isn't the same without you.