The Road Less Travelled

I remember studying a poem by Robert Frost in high school which talked about the two roads in life that we often have to choose between, and how infrequently people choose the less travelled road.

My children attend a small school but every Friday, the children in the upper grades participate in interschool sport against other schools in the area. Most of these schools hire buses to transport the children to various other schools and sporting fields to be able to participate. Our school is unable to do this because there are so few children and each team generally plays in a different location. So we rely on a band of willing parents to transport a carload of children to the games each week.

There are many parents who work and aren't able to help with sport transport, and there are still others who choose not to. But I actually think this is the best time of the week, and this is why:

• I get to enjoy a car trip with 6 pre-adolescent boys who invariable spend the trip talking about cars, producing body odours and singing along to my cd's. This week I could only laugh as all the boys sang along to the High School Musical soundtrack and made requests for the next song.
• I get to spend time with my son in the company of his classmates. As they talk, my replies wash over them as adult wisdom, but it's only through spending time with them that they respect and accept my opinions.
• I get to engage in The Amazing Race, where the boys eagerly try to ensure that we are the first car at the sporting ground and back at school. I'm still yet to work out why they want to get back to school first, but every week, we try to take shortcuts to ensure that we're back before the other cars.
• I get to connect with other parents who value this opportunity to engage with their child and others within the sporting teams.
• I get to connect with the teachers who have my children every day. They value the input and support of parents, that only increases their willingness to keep putting the long hours into the job that they do.

There are many things that I could be busy with on a Friday afternoon, but I'm glad I've chosen the road less travelled and taken the time to drive the kids to sport. The pay offs for myself and my son are wonderful.