Last year, before my move to London, I asked what team I should support. During the year, I was only able to get to four matches -- I took the family to see QPR and Millwall and also went to see West Ham and Fulham. Which leads me to yesterday. My older son is six and getting into soccer. He plays in a clinic once a week but is constantly kicking a ball around. He is very excited about the upcoming World Cup and tries to watch soccer on tv whenever he can. So what is the problem? Yesterday, while watching the final week of EPL, he turns to me and says "Daddy, Chelsea is my favorite team and John Terry is my favorite player." So I ask you all, have I failed as a father?
It gets worse. For his birthday he wanted (and got) a card that sings "Blue is the Colour". As we were heading back to the airport after Christmas we stopped at a rest area on the Mass Pike for lunch. He was sitting there with his Chelsea hat on. People at the next table remarked about it and I said I was trying to break him out of it. "Is it because you don't like football?" our new companions asked. "No!" shouted my son. "It is because my Daddy supports Fulham!" Oh I have failed.
It is unfortunate, but it should turn out OK unless you start selling drugs, and he has a fight outside a nightclub, racially abuses a work colleague, shags his friends' missus and so on.
he's just six if he was a young adult and he liked terry then perhaps you should be alarmed. He has probably only seen the good side of his hero and has not seen, heard and understood the bad and ugly side of him YET. In fact you kind of a good father to be able to prevent him from being exposed to the sordid realities of people. Everyday I am shocked by children's knowledge of "adult" issues at their age. There lack of sensitivity to such things makes me worry what they might turn out to be as adults.