(Not) Throwing bricks at windows

Sooooo, I'm stood outside in the cold at a tennis tournament. Clearly not watching COG playing tennis as I have my head buried in this but that's ok because she prefers if I am here but not watching win:win.

She generally gets annihilated at these tournaments and I fail to see the enjoyment she gets out of it. But she does enjoy it, so I drive her to them, get bored and drive her home again.

What I do find interesting is watching the groups of kids hanging around between matches. The girls generally sit and watch but the boys need to 'do stuff'. The younger ones ride scooters around.  The older ones kick tennis balls in improvised footy, they 'short volley' balls in small areas, in fact anything to keep from being bored.

It strikes me that there is little difference between these kids and the ones in the streets at the back of shutdown factories throwing bricks at windows. They are all just keeping busy, killing the boredom.

So what is the difference?  Some of it is money, there is a fair or unfair share of X5s and iPhone 5s around here, but this isn't an expensive afternoon. It cost £12.50 for the whole thing no extras.  The cost of her weekly tennis in general is less than an average smoker's or drinker's habit or a weekly family trip to McDonalds. A trip to Starbucks would wipe the floor with a few weeks worth!

So I think a lot of the difference is parental time. Every child here has a parent hanging around.  Most look cold and bored like me. Some look like they are enjoying it, mainly the pushy parents, I hate the conversations with them:

"We are a huuuuge tennis family you know. Oh yes, we just adore touring the tournament circuit"
"hmmmm, great, fantastic" the flat sarcasm is unrecognised or ignored
"I love how they spend all the summer hols on the courts"
"COG spends most of it in bed"
Pushy Parent sucks teeth sharply "well, yes, sweetumns1 does like a lie in occasionally, but best discouraged we think. You could try evening coaching"
"I think that breaks her ASBO curfew"
Watch pushy parent check for X5 keys and zip handbag shut.

But that's just my in-house entertainment, I think they are really here for the same reasons as me. Knowing it is better to keep kids busy doing stuff or they will be off somewhere doing stuff we'd prefer they weren't.

There is one coach running the whole thing and my guess is he isn't making a whole lot of money out of today. My guess is he makes his money coaching one-to-one middle class, middle aged ladies that nag sweetums1 out of bed then like to lunch after a session with the coach.

I may be stereotyping a tad.