So much to blog about this week but I'm going to give you an insight into the commitment required to live in a rural area when you have kids and want them to play sport.
So, we live in an absolutely amazing rural area full of fabulous people with a great sense of community. The families around here are also what would be termed "good breeders" with most families having an heir and a spare and then some. We ourselves have four kids, all of whom are playing a sport this winter.
When you live in town, sport is usually a much more simple affair involving a five to ten minute drive across town to get your kids to sport. Often schools in town have much higher rolls so there are plenty of parents to take on the tasks of coaches and administrators. It is quite a different scenario when you live in the country!! Our school has a roll of about 54. Being that we are all "breeders" the actual number of families is something like 20. This of course means that when its time for sport, there aren't many hands to go around so nearly everyone has to take on one (or several) roles. I am co-coaching one of the netball teams which means a once a week practice, and helping out with another team when the coach is unavailable, as well as being on the Committee. Fortunately this year our three daughters all have practice on the same day however last year it was quite different with me having to do a one hour round trip twice a week for practices and a three hour round trip for games on Saturdays.
There is also the issue of not having enough children to make up full teams, a problem in most rural areas. The usual way of things is that schools that are nearby will band together to find enough kids to make up full teams. The concept of "nearby" though is an interesting one and comes with its own set of problems. What constitutes nearby? Well its all relative isn't it. If you live on the North Shore, a nearby school would be about 2-3km away from another one. In rural areas, nearby takes on a whole new meaning. Our "nearby" schools are all 20-30km away from each other making the logistics of sports practice a little difficult. In order to facilitate kids being able to play sport and get home before it is completely dark, our entire school day changes for the winter term with a shortened lunch hour and school finishing at 2.30pm. My kids though live 30 minutes from school so unfortunately they still get home in the dark after sports practice!! Kids are required to be extremely adaptable and the kiwi attitude of "just get on with it" seems to start a little bit earlier in country kids. This is evident in Xanthe, our youngest, who in order to play netball has had to join a team of kids from town where she is the only country kid and knew nobody in her team. It didn't phase her one bit though...character building is what they call it isn't it?
Madeleine, our oldest, is in a combined team with another nearby school this year, but last year she was in a combined team with two different schools whose distance from our home is over 100km one way. She has to travel most weeks from our school to Weber school for practice. Unfortunately this is also the day that I coach Lizzie's team at Pongaroa School so of course I cannot transport her there. Cue rural community spirit and car pooling. One parent, who also happens to be the coach of that team, drives Madeleine and the other A Grade players to their practices and another parent brings them back. In the meantime two of us are coaching the C Grade team at Pongaroa School. It is much easier than last year when she was travelling into Dannevirke once a week, although the local Pub provided the Community Van to transport them. Hilarious watching the pub branded courtesy van full of young kids!!
Saturdays are an absolute nightmare in our house. It is a nearly three hour round trip for netball and rugby games in Dannevirke. We have to leave our house at 7.30 every Saturday morning in order to get to the Courts by 9.00am, stopping on the way to pick up the team sweets and player of the day prize. It is even more difficult if Scott is planning on playing rugby for our local club that day. We all need to go into town and I have to have lunch made for all six of us (I'm refuse to buy lunch as its too expensive) and I also have to have a substantial meal item made to take to the club rooms for after Scott's game. The kids all play their respective games, with me coaching and assisting where needed....running around like a chook with my head cut off. We then load into the car, stuff our faces with bacon and egg pie or sandwiches, while we drive the one hour back to Pongaroa for Scott's rugby.
I often say "oh well, it could be worse" and, quite often, it is. On cold wet days you have to take at least one change of clothes per family member, sometimes two. If Scott is unavailable then I have all four kids to deal with and often he will ask me to do a couple of jobs for him, seeing as I'm going to be in town. I am often envious of some of the other parents who wander up to Netball immaculately groomed with a latte in hand while I am in trackpants, a sensible rather than glamorous coat and have frequently been rained on. Last week I ended up covered in grease from doing one of Scott's little jobs. In the 15 minute break between two games I had to go and drop off the pipes from the Bulldozer to the engineering workshop, hence the grease. I also had to drop meat off at the butchers and pick up a box of sausages and check in at the motorbike shop to see if the quad was ready.
Next year is going to be a little harder. Although Jimmy started playing rugby this year, being 4 his enthusiasm has waned a little (or at least Scott's has) so we have taken a casual approach and only taken him along occasionally. Next year will be different though and I am sure Scott will be approached for coaching duties. I have admit that I am pleased that at this point our children are not in representative teams as that makes life even more difficult with two practices in town each week (3 hour round trip) on top of practices for their local team, then tournaments all around the lower North Island on Sundays. It's just what you do for your kids though isn't it, although in my opinion rural people have to make a much larger commitment, including financially. Roll on Summer I say when I can have my Saturday's back.
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