Jayhawk Jersey in the House!

For those of you who are not committed Tiger fans, you may not get the significance of this. Brief history - dating back to the Cival War, the Kansas Jayhawks have been chief rivals of the Missouri Tigers, and true to our team, we carry on the tradition.


Imagine our internal dismay when our children came home from our neighbors house with Jayhawk jerseys under their coats! Our neighbor, Big Aaron, called a few days ago and said "Hey, we've got presents for the boys, send them over." The boys gladly marched over, eager for any time spent with Big Aaron and Jenny.

Now, we have tiptoed around the Jayhawk/Tiger rivalry in our house since the boys have increased awareness of sportsmanship. Whenever they play any type of ball game, one team is the Jayhawks, the other the Tigers, and of course the Tigers always win. That's the extent of our communication to them about the Jayhawks. Since the boys have a special affection for Jenny (a KU grad), they have come to their own conclusions (with help from Jenny, I'm sure) that the Jayhawks are indeed a worthwhile team, even letting the Jayhawks win occasionally in their backyard games. Some Tiger parents would disagree with our stance on this, letting our children have any feelings other than distaste for the Jayhawks, teaching their own children to call them the "Bad Birdies" and to hurl insults and punches at any other children who would dare to harbor an fondness for KU. But, this seems to be the first of many times that we will allow our children to form their own opinions, however vastly different they be from our own.

The boys were thrilled with the jerseys, of course, glad to wear any type of sport shirt, with increased value because they were a gift from our beloved neighbors. They wore the jerseys for two days straight. On the second day I needed to run some errands at the mall and asked the boys to get ready to go. They asked with much concern "Can we wear these Jayhawk shirts to the mall?" I evenly answered, "Yes, of course, you get to choose what you wear" all the while praying desperately that this would not be the day we run into Coach Pinkel, or Chase, or Maclin, or anyone else I know for that matter! Aaron shuffled around and finally said, "I'd like to change my shirt" to which my relieved response was "Like I said, you choose what you wear." William hadn't said anything, but still wasn't putting on his coat despite my repeated requests. Finally he says "I'm too shy to wear the Jayhawks to the mall". Yes! They do have a sense of loyalty, and what a great trait to have! (along with a sense of fairness and equality, of course)

So, thanks, dear neighbors, for providing this important character building moment for our boys!

Seriously, Aaron and Jenny, thanks for loving our boys, for exposing them safely to the world beyond Mizzou, for being such dear friends to us. We are blessed to call you neighbor. And, you can take pride when you see the boys running around all next summer in their Jayhawk jerseys (unless they are accidently ruined in the laundry... turned black and gold in some sort of freak coloring accident... unfortunate things do happen).