It was pouring rain on a Saturday morning, and we woke up at 6am to get our 2 older kids ready for school.
Why you may ask, on a Saturday ?
It was because they were having their annual school sports day event that day. Last year we brought their 6 year old sister along, but this year the effort was higher because we had to bring along their 4 month old baby brother too as we were now a family of 6.
We drove out of the house by 6.40am while the sky was still dark, and I was feeling tired as our baby boy had a bad night with multiple waking throughout, to feed, for comfort, and for all the reasons babies still wake at night.
“Will you be there to watch me in my competition?’
My 10 year old just before we dropped him and his sister at his school about 20 minutes later.
‘We will try to be back on time, maybe by 8.30am’ I said to him, hoping that we could catch them in their event.
We had to leave them at school for a while collect their baby brother’s passport at the immigration office, and then after a quick breakfast for my husband and myself and my 6year old at a Korean convenience store we went back to their school. The time was now 8.30am, and the sky was pouring rain.
When we reached back at school all the students, teachers and parents had congregated at the schools main hall, which had a solid roof but open at the sides.
The rest of the sports events had to be held indoors at the hall because of the heavy downpour, that lasted all the way till after 12pm even after the event ended. We felt bad for the school as they had prepared some of their games and competitions on the fields which were by now cancelled.
There were much less parents than expected, and because the sports events were held in the hall, we had to stand at the perimeters of the hall to watch the children compete, while trying not to get too wet when the wind blew.
So now we were carying my 4 month old baby, while our 6 year old tried to keep herself entertained by playing with our umbrella while occasionally watching the games.
Our kids saw us and were glad, and we supported them and mostly waited for the whole event at the edges of the hall, giving them snacks to share with their team mates and making our presence known to them.
In actuallity we had missed their event, and were now just there to wait for them and let them be with their team which were designated by colours.
It was about 3 hours of standing, sometimes sitting if we can get a stray chair, and occasional snacking as I too had to be entertained by more than races and indoor competitions.
My baby had to be nursed, played with, and then he slept on my husband’s arms for an hour. Finally they sang the national anthem and the event was dismissed.
Needless to say, we were now physically tired, and hungry, and slightly wet from the consistent heavy rain.
Why did we do all that?
Parent’s attendance were not compulsory, and we could have just dropped them in school and went home, with our baby.
We did it because we wanted our kids to know we cared about their them and their school activities, that we were going to be around to support them.
I also did it because I wanted to see how the kids interacted with their friends, team mates, and teachers and how they were in school. We talked to their friends, we observed, we gave snacks and asked them to pass it out.
I hope even a small thing like just being there made them feel loved.
That mummy and daddy are willing to support them even when we were inconvenienced.
It was important for me that they felt loved even in the smallest ways, and I hope that feeling stayed with them all the way to their adulthood.
12pm finally came and I was glad the event was over, we collected all 4 kids and huddled them into the car and drove home, with the kids chatter filling the space in the car all the way home.