I’m 42, and have 3 kids aged 12-15.
I have been fencing the past couple of years. I started after injuries terminated my longtime participation in martial arts. Foil is my preferred weapon. I generally fenced the fall/winte/spring, and took the summers off. Classes were inexpensive and very close to home, so very good at convincing me to get my carcass off the couch.
I had been having a little trouble getting myself psyched up for this fall’s session - which began last night. For one, my club has been going very much to an epee club. It never is the best to be the “second rate” in your chosen group/activity.
For another, I was not getting as good as I wanted to be. I was nowhere near as good a fencer as I had been a fighter. And tho fencing was fun in some ways, it just wasn’t really clicking for me.
Another thing is there seems to be a kinda high prima donna segment in the fencing world. Which is fine for them. I just don’t need to be a part of that world.
Further, I don’t really care for the hassle of maintaining electronic equipment.
I’ve been enjoying putting more time and dedication into running and golf. And things have been really good on the home front. We had made a calculated move to cut down on some committments, and fencing was looking to me as just one more evening committment each week.
In past sessions, there were maybe 6 adult guys, all of who fenced at least some foil. And a bunch of high school and jr. high kids. Tho I was one of the better foilists, a couple of other guys were pretty good as well. We had some fun matches. Many of the kids really didn’t work too hard - were just goofing off and having fun. Nothing wrong with that, but not my thing right now.
I show up yesterday and the teacher says that out of 20 students, I am the only one over 17. That’s just a little - uh - wierd. I like kids, and they seem not to mind me, but those numbers just seem to be pushing it to an extreme where I’m not all that comfortable.
Second, a lot of the kids go to high school with my daughter. I know one girl well from past sessions. She is a good friend of my daughter’s. But then I’m chatting with this other girl and she says, Oh, you mean A__? She’s in my history class. And I look around and think, Didn’t A__ go out with that one guy a time or 2?
In the meantime, I actually had a pretty good time, fencing and chatting with the kids. Lots of them have interests in band and theater, or BtVS or role playing, and they get all excited when they find an adult who likes to talk about such things as well. And they all like to share horror stories about school, or their mean and unreasonable parents.
But on the way home I was thinking, this might be a dangerous opportunity for information to leak from one universe - the Dinsdale family homelife universe - into the paralell universe of high school social life. As you are aware, it is very important that those two universes be kept clearly delineated, and that any transfer of information between the two be monitored closely, as it could cause the mutual instantaeous annihilation of both universes.
I realized that in this situation I could far too easily do or say something while goofing around, having fun, challenging my aged body to do something athletic, that could end up embarrassing my daughter if it got back to her. However these kids might appear to me one night a week, I really have no idea what their relationship with my kid really is. And I don’t want to slip and say something about my daughter that she may not want folks at school to know.
I kept hearing the phrase You’re killing independent George!
Like I said, I was kind of looking for an excuse to stop fencing, so I chose this one. Even tho my daughter said she really didn’t mind, I know I’m essentially a tactless bigmouthed boob, and that situation was handing me a blowtorch atop a powderkeg.
So no more fencing for me, mom! Anyone up for a quick 9 holes, or a couple of miles?
