A child plays “Olympics” — we adults could learn a lot

My seven year old is home sick today, and since I am trying to keep the tv off for at least part of this sick day, he gathered up his stuffies (stuffed animals to you non-parents) to play Olympics.

First, he put his two mascots into his slippers and said they were doing the luge.

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Then he put them into daddy’s slippers and they were bobsledders. (Sorry it’s a bit blurry. They were moving too fast for a good photo.)

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Then he built his own sliding track. Note how safe it is. His track has lots of spectators, but they all have a great view of the whole track.

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Here are the athletes in the dressing room.

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Here are the spectators lining up to get in.

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Here are two spectators trading Olympic pins.

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Through the eyes of a child, I give you the Playroom Sliding Centre. Go Canada Go!

Oh no, they shook hands at soccer!

I’m getting a bit fed up about all the hysteria over H1N1. I know it’s a new strain of flu, and so our susceptibility to it is high. I know it’ll spread fast when it hits, and I know for some people it will be very serious when they get it.

But we get flu every winter. In fact, both my kids already had flu this month, just the old-fashioned kind, not the new-fangled H1N1. And people do get very sick and even die of the other flu strains out there. So they’re all serious, aren’t they?

Yesterday at soccer, my son’s team went over to greet their opponents after the game, and out of habit, hit the hands of the other kids — you know, hands out, walk in a row, hit hands as you pass. But the soccer association has told us not to do that. They say because of H1N1 the boys should bump elbows. And some parents saw the hand touching and freaked.

I think maybe the freaking was kind of overkill. Yes, we should be vigilant this flu season, and yes, if we’ve got sick kids, they should stay home, maybe even a day longer than we might have kept them home in another year. But kids will touch each other, especially in sports. Should we really be all that worried?