For Father's Day we got four tickets to watch Forge FC play at Tim Hortons Field. Second year we've done it, and both times it delivered. Going to a Raptors, Leafs, or Ticats game comes with so much stress. The driving, the parking, the crowds going in and coming out, squeezing past everyone to get to your seat. So much happening just to watch a game. I went to a Raptors 905 game last winter and man, was it easy. No stress, and the players are hungry, so it was definitely entertaining. This was no different.
There was so much parking I pulled right onto someone's driveway across the street from the stadium. We grabbed snacks, sat down, and watched a good game.
Kiki plays soccer every week, so I figured he'd be locked in on the field. He wasn't, really. What he locks into is the crowd. He takes the energy in the stands and tries to give it right back. He did the exact same thing last year. This year a Forge player went in hard on a tackle and Kiki, dead serious, yells "this isn't judo, buddy!" Half our section lost it.
He eventually got bored, but the stadium had a foosball table and one of those beanbag toss games sitting right there. Room to walk around too, if he needed to move. So he was covered.
That was the whole afternoon. Warm out, the energy still up, a couple of hours of fun in Hamilton while supporting a local team. Tickets start at $29.99.
One piece of advice if you go. Get seats in sections 101 to 109 (club seats) or 202 to 208. We sat on the other side and got cooked in the sun, which is its own kind of exhausting. Learn from my squint.
Neeks
Dads corner
Toys Will Be Toys
A promotional image for Toy Story 5 - Pixar, Disney
I took Kiki to see Toy Story 5 this weekend. I have always loved Pixar movies. Not in the "keeps the kid quiet for two hours" way, in the actual way. They build them on two levels. There is a whole layer of jokes flying over the kids' heads and landing squarely on the adults, and you catch yourself laughing at something your nine-year-old will not get for another decade. That is the trick almost nobody else pulls off.
He is nine now, which put him right in the pocket for what this one is actually about. I don't want to spoil it, but I will tell you the subject this chapter takes on is old toys versus technology. The quiet anxiety screens are starting to put on kids. For a nine-year-old who craves the screen, it could not have been more on the nose.
On the walk out he asked if he could play the arcade. I didn't have any cash on me, and it was almost bedtime anyway, so we kept walking back to the car. I figured this was my window. I started asking questions. What was your favourite part? What was the funniest scene? What did you take from it? What were the lessons?… eventually circling back to explain why we only do video games on the weekend, and why we cap the TV time. Felt great to send the message without having to say too much.
He went quiet. Not tired quiet. Off quiet. So I kept poking, and it came out. He was upset we didn't play the arcade. That is when it landed on me. The exact thing the movie was about was happening in the parking lot, in real time, and I was the one narrating it while missing it.
So I laid it out for him. “Buddy. You played video games for an hour this morning. I played with you for a couple hours and I know you played more this weekend. You're out with your dad, in the fun car, we just went to the theatre, the two of us, and the only thing in your head walking out is the arcade. This is exactly the thing we just watched. You don't see that?”
He saw it. He conceded. He was not happy about conceding. How do you rebut that? He went quiet again, and this time it was the sulky kind, because he had caught the parallel too and did not enjoy being the example.
I had to reset him somehow. How do I end this evening with a punch? I found it as we approached our highway exit. I dropped it into fourth gear and punched it. That woke him up. Big grin, whole mood gone, with no words.
I'll let you sit with the fact that my cure for too much stimulation was more stimulation. In my defense, it worked. I felt the irony the entire time. I just felt it at about 6000 RPM.
Google Toy Story 5 to see where it's playing.
Neeks
Events this Weekend
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