As someone who studies families for a living, I have a question about other peoples' experiences with their children and BYU football. The intergenerational transmission of values basically means that we as parents transmit our values and beliefs to our children through direct teaching or modeling of behavior.
I have a 3 year old son who knows about BYU football, knows the fight song and will watch it for about 20mins. and that is about it, after that he is on to something else. Furthermore, I have taken him to the stadium and he lasts about 15 mins. I hear of other children and I see other children at games who sit for a good portion of the game and are about as young as my son and I have even seen some younger. I am trying to transmit this value on to him but he just doesn't seem to care. This email is a little TIC BUT nonetheless and notwithstanding I wonder if it is just my son or does this happen to a lot of other parents. I want to get season tickets but honestly it may be a waste. My wife won't let me just go by myself because that leaves her at home all by herself with him and a 9mo. old and if we all go it is really just chaos trying to chase him around the bleachers. Any thoughts, parenting ideas?

From a father of 5 ranging from 5 to 16, I would say that 3 is probably too young to sit through a full game. Most of my kids didn't handle a full game until they were about 7 or 8.

Now, a 3 year old will probably do better with bribery such as ice cream, etc. I don't think it is a lack of interest in BYU football, I think it is a lack of attention span. 15-20 minutes is really pretty good.

Good luck!

Two things, remember that there is always variance (error) in every social science study based on a theory.

Second, I remember when I was young (5-10 or so) we used to always go to the stake center to watch the BYU games. I don't remember much of the actual games because my friends and I would go out and play football on the lawn instead of really watching the game. Sometimes kids just need to expend energy (not enough kids do this now, that's why so many of us americans are getting so fat).

I don't think you have anything to worry about.

I took my 4-year-old to his first games last year at UCLA and at SDSU. For the UCLA game he lasted almost until halftime and again almost through the third quarter. Then he wanted to play with the binoculars, his cousins, and the goo underneath the seats (nearly making his 7-months-pregnant mommy add her own special blend to that goo). We kept his attention by helping him with cheers, knowing when to clap, and by teaching him the numbers of some of the key players (Kehl, Hall, Collie, Allen) and asking him questions about the game. He had a good but not great performance.
By the time the SDSU contest rolled around, he was pretty attentive for the most of game. That stadium is a great place to bring a kid because it's empty enough for him to move around a bit, but full enough to keep him somewhat corralled. He played around during the timeouts and such, but would reengage when it was important.
This year we probably won't be able to hit any games (living in Southern California), but we're going to keep up his education with the distance learning program of televised games.
Good luck to your sons. "Train up a child in the way he should go..." and all that.

j2b03 wrote:

As someone who studies families for a living, I have a question about other peoples' experiences with their children and BYU football. The intergenerational transmission of values basically means that we as parents transmit our values and beliefs to our children through direct teaching or modeling of behavior.
I have a 3 year old son who knows about BYU football, knows the fight song and will watch it for about 20mins. and that is about it, after that he is on to something else. Furthermore, I have taken him to the stadium and he lasts about 15 mins. I hear of other children and I see other children at games who sit for a good portion of the game and are about as young as my son and I have even seen some younger. I am trying to transmit this value on to him but he just doesn't seem to care. This email is a little TIC BUT nonetheless and notwithstanding I wonder if it is just my son or does this happen to a lot of other parents. I want to get season tickets but honestly it may be a waste. My wife won't let me just go by myself because that leaves her at home all by herself with him and a 9mo. old and if we all go it is really just chaos trying to chase him around the bleachers. Any thoughts, parenting ideas?

No worry. According to Al Gore, due to increased global warming the next generation is far more likely to not only be BYU football fans but they are far more likely to be rated as extremely rabid BYU football fans. In fact the rating services are considering creating a new top category just so that they can properly classify the upcoming generation of BYU football fans.

I think the important thing is to at least plant the sead of BYU Fandom. Ensuring your children can sing the entire BYU Fight song by age 2 to 3 is a good start. My son just turned 5 and he gets more excited about being at the stadium, hearing the band and spotting Cosmo then the game itself sometimes. I live in Northern California, so my son has only been to one BYU football game in person, but his favorite clothes are his BYU shirts, sweatshirts and hats. For christmas when he was three he got an entire BYU football uniform (including helmut) from Santa. (Works great as a halloween costume too!) Just remember, you must teach your children correct principles when they are young or the sin will wrest upon the heads of the parents.