How do you encourage your child to become a Shrimper?

[Ricey]

Did anyone else when they were younger have the same question asked after you told people you support Southend "Ok, so who is your real team?" Used to **** me off that question.

 

[chapperzUK]

Did anyone else when they were younger have the same question asked after you told people you support Southend "Ok, so who is your real team?" Used to **** me off that question.

Still get it sometimes. Remember I was playing for a new 5 a side team and 2 of them asked who I supported (turned up in a Southend shirt too) and told them I supported Southend. Their reply was "yeah we all support Southend, but which real Premiership team do you support?", they said the usual Liverpool and Man U. My reply was simply "I'm a Southend season ticket holder, they are my one and only team."

I pity them really.

 

[FarmdogSUFC]

Did anyone else when they were younger have the same question asked after you told people you support Southend "Ok, so who is your real team?" Used to **** me off that question.

Got a similar question at work. Got chatting about football and he asked me who I support, to which he replied...

"So your're not into real football then?"

Safe to say we haven't had a proper conversation since.

 

[Barry.C]

Im with King Shrimper, going to the game with a day out with Dad was the main course. My wife is interested but not overly keen since feezing one Xmas watching us at Gillingham she departed at half time! Each one of my 4 have been different though. As I was first taken by my dad at the age of five, I thought this was the yard stick for all. It was for three of them, but my youngest daughter was terrified on the first occasion. For some reason the noise of 6,000 half mad shrimpers alarmed her. Within a couple of seasons though she became an ardent noisy bug-er. As we traveled from Gillingham though it had to be a bit of a day out. Getting burgered up on the way home helped as did numerous Xmas presents of Kit, Mugs, scarves etc. If that fails try a good thrashing

 

[chapperzUK]

Im with King Shrimper, going to the game with a day out with Dad was the main course. My wife is interested but not overly keen since feezing one Xmas watching us at Gillingham she departed at half time! Each one of my 4 have been different though. As I was first taken by my dad at the age of five, I thought this was the yard stick for all. It was for three of them, but my youngest daughter was terrified on the first occasion. For some reason the noise of 6,000 half mad shrimpers alarmed her. Within a couple of seasons though she became an ardent noisy bug-er. As we traveled from Gillingham though it had to be a bit of a day out. Getting burgered up on the way home helped as did numerous Xmas presents of Kit, Mugs, scarves etc. If that fails try a good thrashing

Half mad? We're completely mental! :tease:

 

[leeblue]

simple, take them from the age of two, smother them in SUFC folk lore, two years later completely brainwashed....ask my 16 year old son he will soon tell you the score. Its also just a son and dad thing for me, we are generations deep in my clan

 

[Shrimperforlife]

Did anyone else when they were younger have the same question asked after you told people you support Southend "Ok, so who is your real team?" Used to **** me off that question.

I can never understand how you can have two teams..... As the song says..... Shrimper till I die.....

 

[chapperzUK]

I can never understand how you can have two teams..... As the song says..... Shrimper till I die.....

Agreed, you can only support one team and any other team you will just look out for their results. I look out for Leicester's results because half the family support them but wouldn't say I support them.

 

[Shrimperforlife]

Still get it sometimes. Remember I was playing for a new 5 a side team and 2 of them asked who I supported (turned up in a Southend shirt too) and told them I supported Southend. Their reply was "yeah we all support Southend, but which real Premiership team do you support?", they said the usual Liverpool and Man U. My reply was simply "I'm a Southend season ticket holder, they are my one and only team."

I pity them really.

I work in Wembley.. In sight of the stadium, and the firm I work for plays for a five a side pitch under Wembley way each week... As you can imagine I'm the only one in a Southend shirt, but I wear it as a badge of honour.... And I certainly had fun with the gooners when they took the mick, when I answered last April... "At least my team has played at Wembley more than you have in the last couple of seasons"
it soon shut them up....
i have to think.... You either like being different , or you are a sheep.....

 

[RHB]

My dad regularly took me to Spurs from the age of 9 as he was season ticket holder at W.H.L. I was actually put off by the train journey there from Rayleigh every other week. In my early teens a group of us at school went to a Southend home game for a laugh (on our push bikes) and it's been one long laugh ever since. The rest of my mates followed other teams (West Ham, Millwall, Charlton) depending where their parents came from originally, but they still turned out for Friday night games. I stayed with the blues because they felt like my club and still do.

 

[Jam_Man]

I can never understand how you can have two teams..... As the song says..... Shrimper till I die.....

My family team is Arsenal (family are from Islington) so I supported Arsenal as a kid. Went to Roots Hall when I was about 9 or 10 in around 1980 and then started going properly late eighties and been going on an off since then (with a massive 9 year gap in the 90's!)

Was a passionate armchair Arsenal fan at that point, but a Southend Supporter.

Now I still follow Arsenal a bit, but I couldnt name most of their squad and havent sat through a game for a long time. Dont really enjoy football on TV as much as I used to in general and rather sit in the West Stand watching us play Morcambe.

I still would like Arsenal to do well but If someone said Southend could get promoted to the Premiership but Arsenal would go bust Id take it in the blink of any eye!

Im hoping my son will take on Southend as his team in the way I did with Arsenal, but then have no reason to take on another. If only Fossetts had progressed the way it was meant to....

 

[Uncle Leo]

I'm working on a gradual drip-drip of exposure to Southend for my two (they turn three later this month).

I'm not sure there's much point taking them to games yet as they are a right pair of fidgetpants but I've signed them up to Junior Blues (a bargain at £10), bought them some merchandise and am always singing Southend songs around them. Rest assured, I edit the 'Karren Brady is a ****ing whore' line...

Anyhow, we'll get there. We live in a strong Arsenal area so I'll need to keep fighting the good fight but the idea of going to Southend games with them when they are older genuinely excites me.

 

[Tampa Blue]

I'm sure my son (age 9) is the only boy in Tampa who has a Southend Utd bookmark, and Tee Shirt and when the rest of the class talk sport and how they love Tampa Bay Rays or Bucs, he proudly stands up and says that he supports Southend United.

 

[OldBlueLady]

For me, it was always being able to spend time with my dad that made football "our" thing. Both my kids have come along for a while but work and money prevents my son from seeing more, my daughter was only ever interested because successive boyfriends were!

 

[Ramsdenblue]

I have 3 boys. 14, 12 and 10, and they all surport SOUTHEND UNITED, i have not pushed them or bribed them to surport SUFC, they have just came to the games with me, and made their own dissisions to who they surport.

Even at secondry school, where all surport man u, arsenal, wet spam etc... my boys tell all i am, SUFC. a propper football surporter, not a plastic.

 

[Smiffy]

Encourage?

Noooooo, you TELL them. :thumbsup:

 

[united we stand]

My sons both do football twice a week. The eldest does it after school on Tuesday and at Excel on a Wednesday. The younger one does it at Excel on a Monday and at nursery on a Tuesday.

The youngest is (IMO) too young to go, so the older one comes with me. He is obsessed with football in general and loves coming with me to Roots Hall. I have now got him a season ticket. Both boys sing “de de de de Freddy Eastwood” on a regular basis, and have now started singing other Southend songs at home, the younger one copying the older one. I honestly have not pushed this on them, but have left them to decide for themselves. That said, I have bought both of them a Southend shirt...

The oldest one has also asked me about 1000 times to watch the goals from the 2nd leg of last season’s area final of the JPT. Needless to say the only times I have said no is when it is past his bed time. Other than that he can watch it whenever he wants. When he’s ill, or when he just wants some quiet time he will often ask to watch one of the other Southend games I have recorded. His second favourite is the 2-1 away win at Gillingham a couple of seasons ago, but he has watched a fair few other games, and can tell me the score, and who scored most of the goals. None of this was pushed on him, but it wasn’t discouraged either. The younger one is starting to show the same kind of interest.

However, my wife reckons she’s a Spurs fan, and got her mum to buy the eldest a Spurs kit for his 5th birthday (end of August). I saw the kit before his birthday, and saw that she had had his name and the number 5 put on the back. I therefore bought him a new Southend shirt, and did the same. Because that wasn’t a birthday present I gave it to him before his birthday, which completely stole my mother-in-law’s thunder! So, I suppose I am also guilty of ensuring no other team is promoted above Southend in our household.

As I said, I haven’t pushed this on them, but I have certainly encouraged it. That said, if they decided they didn’t like football then that would also be fine. The real question for me is what happens when they get fed up with being ridiculed at school for being the only Southend fan? We live close to Barnet and very close to Watford. Needless to say Arsenal and Spurs are well supported around our way, and the Arsenal training ground is about 5 minutes away, so there is a fair chance that they’ll want to change clubs in the future, but only if I haven’t done my job properly!

I like your style

 

[united we stand]

O god. Reading the above i am a bad parent. I bought .y son a Southend kit wherever he wanted it or not. And took him Nd the other bif

Boys in my team and parents to Southend several times. My son got the idea that this was his team. One of my proudest sufc moments is hearing him at football training saying -' -we might be **** but I am a proper supporters' when is the last time you watched arsenal/ Tottenham/man utd
Ufc moments ja

 

[Berrichonne shrimper]

I took my oldest son to games home and away and he enjoyed the experiance because of the junior blues playing others teams kids and meeting up with all the other kids.
When he hit 13 he asked if he could support a decent team,i was heartbroken,he now lives in and supports Liverpool but he was at wembley with me and my middle son.
When i moved to France i spent one season going to the Berrichonne on my own and then the secound season i took my middle son for company and now he is hooked but not for the football but for the night out with his dad and the pizza on the way home.
So get your kids in the junior blues.

 

[londonblue]

I'm working on a gradual drip-drip of exposure to Southend for my two (they turn three later this month).

I'm not sure there's much point taking them to games yet as they are a right pair of fidgetpants but I've signed them up to Junior Blues (a bargain at £10), bought them some merchandise and am always singing Southend songs around them. Rest assured, I edit the 'Karren Brady is a ****ing whore' line...

Anyhow, we'll get there. We live in a strong Arsenal area so I'll need to keep fighting the good fight but the idea of going to Southend games with them when they are older genuinely excites me.

My wife didn't like it when I sang, "My old man said be a Col Ewe fan"...Mainly because I had to leave so many words out!