Nswers as we return

pletely alien to what they were accustomed to.

Some will take to it like a duck to water, while for others it will feel extremely uncomfortable due to personal circumstances.

Yes, professional sportspeople may have been getting back to it in dribs and drabs over the past few weeks without too many hiccups, but they’re undergoing rigorous testing, something which will have put worried minds to rest.

So many questions, but as a parent of an eight- and ten-yearold, the biggest one for me is, will the kids enjoy their sports when they come back?

Will it be worth it, in a new sanitised environment where every ‘i’ will have to be dotted and every ‘t’ crossed?

There’s no doubting that they could do with the benefits that sport brings after spending so long on the sidelines.

There’s only so much time they can spend blasting shots past daddy dearest before it becomes humdrum.

Skills challenges on Facebook or Twitter can while away a bit of time, but as the days without playing sport with friends drag on, they have become more and more drawn to the lure of their tablets or the Nintendo Switch, where friends are lying in wait for online battles, camaraderie and a small bit of a competitive edge.

Of course, we impose time limits on the amount of screen time they’re allowed, but it’s noticeable that the young lad in particular, who, in normal times, would have to be dragged in from the garden at nightfall, has temporarily lost some of his zest for sport.

I’ve no doubt that the passion will return when they’re back on the pitch gleefully playing with their friends.

Or watching their local and national heroes strutting their stuff and trying to recreate what they’ve witnessed in the garden as the imaginary roar of the crowd reverberates through their brains. However, the questions remain. Will it be possible for them to garner the same sort of excitement and thrill from it, if they are hindered by too many rules and regulations?

Unfortunately absence certainly hasn’t made the heart grow fonder when it comes to my children and sport, and from chatting to friends it’s not just in our house that the apathy has started to creep in.

For sure, there’s a difficult balancing act ahead.

We don’t want our children to lose an important year in their development, but equally they can’t be brought back to an environment that’s devoid of the most important thing in sport at their age – enjoyment.

There’s still more questions than answers, but as we did during lockdown, we’ll adapt with time.

We simply have to.