'Memries' Getting your kids to be a Blade

[Houston_Blade]

Apologies if there's been a recent post along these lines but I can't remember one for around a year and I can't find that one........

Some on here have young kids and some have old. My eldest is 5 and until the last few months hasn't given the slightest bit of a toss about football in general, whether playing, watching or anything. I would never push it as I want him to enjoy the hobbies he has rather than feel he's pushed towards doing something and then get fed up of it.

When we were back in the summer he wanted to come with me so I took him and my Nephew (4) to the Lane and apart from me knocking him flat on his backside when Sharp scored and I jumped up, he's not shut up about "Sheffield United" and "Billy Sharp" ever since, despite the fact that second half he played on games on my phone for 35 mins! The size 5-6 years mini kits have come back in stock so I've just stumped up £15 in postage to get one here as he's been asking for one since we landed back in Qatar.

As someone who has grown up a Blade and went pretty much non-stop and home and away (apart from a few years playing) between the age of 5 and 28 (until kids) it's been great to see that just the trip to the stadium and the atmosphere can capture a kids imagination. I know it could have happened at any club but I do think BDTBL has a special way of appealing that maybe wouldn't have been the case should I have taken him to the Proact or the like.

Anyway, that was a long winded way of saying, how did your kids get into it and have they stuck with it or drifted away?

 

[Ferenc Blade]

My son , 6, loves it..the family stand Im not so sure appreciate his running commentary and referee abuse on Saturday...cheating Norwich was a common refrain, plenty of standing up with arms wide apart was done by him, and regular shouts of get him flecky.

No idea where he gets it from.

 

[highgreenintokyo]

Just had a little lad, so this topic is in the back of my mind, particularly living so far away from Sheff at the minute.

I grew up in North Wales, so supported Liverpool like everyone else around me (everyone was a Liverpool or Man U fan), and my Dad (a life-long Blade) would take me to Liverpool games sometimes.

One day he decided to take me to a Sheff Utd game- Stoke away, in the 89/90 season. The Blades fans were so good and so funny, Agana had just come back from injury and set up Deane for a diving header to win the game. And that was it. I was hooked. We went to every home game after that, and the Leicester game away. Never thought about Liverpool again.

I reckon my Dad was smart in that he waited til the Blades were in a good way and with a good vibe about them before introducing me. I reckon now is a good time for other Dads!

 

[flashinblade1889]

Took my lad when he was nearly 4 lost at home 3-0 to Palace Paddy chucked a couple in the net.He is 17 this week he's had a season ticket with his mates for the last 4 years done all the Wembley defeats proper fan watching a proper club with a proper manager UTB FTP

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

I think it is worth trying to get them hooked young. There is so much football on TV, and if they think that watching ManU or Real Madrid sitting on a settee in front of the fire, with instant replays of every incident and experts telling you what to think, is what football is all about, then it could be hard to win them over to BDTBL. Or perhaps I underestimate their ability to tell fake from real. And they do all enjoy going to adult events with the grown-ups.

 

[Yellarbellyblade]

My eldest son's first Blades match was away at Grimsby when he was four. Evening game. He was a regular until he went to Uni and still goes when he's home. A couple of home games and MK away last season. We went to Sunderland last week before he went back.
I can't think of much better than time with my lad at the footy especially now when we can have a few beers together too. It's the best thing for me so get them hooked as soon as you can. We even converted his best mate from an Arsenal fan to the true faith.
My youngest isn't really so bothered he's more into rugby but did come for a while too and we share musical tastes so do gigs instead.

 

[fintious maximus]

My boys, now 9 and 12 both went to their first blades games at age 4 and we got our first season tickets in the family stand this season. Both boys were born in chesterfield and it was ultimately their choice which team to support. I think dads collection of blades shirt swung it and they are both now as passionate as me and its great fir the three of us to go to matches together. UTB

 

[BigBed]

I didn't need to "get my kid to be a blade", like her dad, she was born one!!

 

[Cerberus Blade]

I think my kids would have been 9 and 6 when I took them to their first match. I wanted them to be old enough to sit and watch it and have an understanding of what was going on without them being a distraction to other folk or getting bored and restless.

It was Plymouth Argyll at home. About 10 years ago I think.

I warned them beforehand..." this is the team I support. They never win anything and if you decide to support them you'll have a lot of fun but also a lot of disappointments".

I can't even remember the score now but I know they enjoyed it. They both started playing junior league football and they've stayed loyal to the Blades ever since. I've inflicted a habit on them that they can't get rid of now.

I remember one day driving past Old Trafford when they were young kids and they were agasp at the stadium and noticed they even had portakabins outside where the programmes were sold. (Not like our "PROGRAMMES £3 QUID" bloke who wanders through the stand).

"Are Manchester United better than Sheffield United Dad?" Asked the eldest.

"Of course not son!" I said.

And somehow he believed me!

 

[Houston_Blade]

"Are Manchester United better than Sheffield United Dad?" Asked the eldest.

"Of course not son!" I said.

And somehow he believed me!

I'm going through that as at the moment, he wanted a football kit the other day and ended up with a PSG one as they were the only ones in his size apart from Man Utd. He asked why he couldn't have a Man Utd kit and I just said that our team in England is the Blades, elsewhere I don't care which shirts he wears. He then said "so are Sheffield United better than Manchester United", to which my reply was "of course they are, although success is not always measured in trophies". I think I confused him enough to get away with it for now. He's the only British kid in his class at school so I'm hoping the influences of the glory hunters won't be prevalent and I can get away with it.

 

[Yewsman]

My son was born in February 1981 just before we were relegated to Div 4 for the first time in our history. I remember saying to my next door neighbour thank god he is too young to ever remember this. Although we did get promoted in 1982 Wendy were in the First Div and it seemed that all his friends wanted to be Wendy supporters and when it came to buying him a shirt he wanted a Wendy one! So I took him down to the shop at BDTBL to "buy a football shirt" and asked at the shop "if they had a Wendy shirt" explaining that I was a blade but my son wanted a Wendy shirt as all his friends had one (with a big wink). They of course said that they didn't have any Blue and white shirts left but had some red and white striped ones. Thankfully he said this would be ok so I bought him his Blades shirt and from that moment we never looked back. Started taking him to matches. Not great. I think his first (or certainly one of them was a 4-0 home defeat under Billy McEwan but we soon got season tickets in the Family stand with my father so for many years went as three generations to all the home games.

 

[2ndtenorblade]

Can't remember the 1st game we took our twin sons to, broke them in gradually. The clincher was the third rd replay against Arsenal with Carl Veart scoring the only goal. They would have been a couple of weeks short of their 9th birthday.

 

[Houston_Blade]

One theme I'm getting from this thread is that the basis on which most people convince their kids to be a Blade is a big fat lie! I assume that this goes on with all clubs outside of the big 4/5 but it's amusing nonetheless.

 

[BigBed]

All my family are blades, apart from 1 cousin, he's one of them!!
I don't see my cousins to often, 3 times in 38years often to be honest!

 

[Cerberus Blade]

All my family are blades, apart from 1 cousin, he's one of them!!
I don't see my cousins to often, 3 times in 38years often to be honest!

3 times in 38 years eh? I might suggest that to the mother in law!