The Olympic Torch: Column From the Bearpit

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The Olympic Torch

As I'm sure the rest of the world is fully aware, the Olympic Games are coming to Sydney, Australia, very soon. This is no doubt tremendously exciting to some people. Our household is determinedly non-sporting and we have to admit to having virtually no interest in these Olympics, or indeed any others.

Tamsin has been learning a bit about the Olympics at school, though, and has shown a slight degree of interest. It's not as though we've banned all talk of it from our house or anything! The Olympic torch traveled very close to our house and they were all whipped up into a frenzy of excitement about it at school, so we couldn’t really avoid that - after all, it was probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and when one of those goes past the end of your street it seems churlish to ignore it.

The school did a banner, lots of locals were out in force, and we all mobbed the nearest main road to watch the Olympic flame go by. In retrospect I think the anticipation was the best bit - the actual flame going by was so quick (well, they do run!) that by the time I’d attempted to take a photo, it was gone. Tamsin enjoyed the atmosphere, the chance to mingle with her schoolmates in an unusual setting, and the chance to say that she saw the Olympic torch.

The Olympics dominate our whole lives at the moment, like it or not. The school holidays have been brought forward by one week to accommodate them. We are starting Daylight Saving two months early, because SOCOG wanted to have it for Sydney. (Uurgghh!!! I had to get up in the dark this morning!!!) I have no doubt that there won't be anything else on TV for the relevant period. We're so uninterested in the whole thing that we are going away for one week of it to a holiday cottage without television reception.

But regardless of all of this, I hope that Tamsin will remember something about the time the Olympics came to Australia. She was impressed when I told her that the last time they had been in Australia was before Daddy was born. (Not that long before!) If they ever come here again she will probably be in her forties at least. And then she will probably follow the lead of her parents and not find them exciting at all!

I really care a great deal for giving my children good memories to hold on to in the future. Of course I hope that their everyday lives will fade gently into one big happy tapestry of a fondly remembered childhood, but I want them to have special memories, too. We as parents cannot force our kids to remember special events in particular, but we can always hope that some of the events we put their way will stick in the mind!

Angus proved today that he remembered something of our last days in England, which I had assumed he had totally forgotten. (He was 2 years 9months when we left last year). No, he hasn't been talking about our last-minute trips to London Zoo or the Tower of London - not even, thank god, the NATO bombing campaign of Serbia, which took off over our rooftops every night in our final weeks in Gloucestershire. Today he had to take an item to kindergarten to demonstrate flight - the first appropriate thing I turned up in the rubble of his bedroom was a grey and orange pelican that we had acquired with a McDonalds Happy Meal in London on our last night there. I talked to him about how it flew, but said nothing about its provenance. When we got to kindergarten he raced over to the teacher, showed her the pelican and proudly announced that it came from McDonalds - you could have knocked me over with a feather!! (Sorry!!!)

So maybe he does remember something of England, even if only McDonalds - and he's not remembering that because of the rarity of the occasion, I'm afraid, McDonalds is a fairly frequent event in our lives.

Whether it's McDonalds, London Zoo or the Olympic torch relay, I really want my kids to remember interesting incidents from their childhood, and want to facilitate this by making sure that they do things worthy of remembering. Even more important, though, is to make their whole childhood happy, secure and worthy of memory.

Judy Edmonds was born in England, grew up in Australia and is married to Graham Peters, a fifth-generation Australian. From 1990-1999 they lived in England - it was meant to be a two year working holiday but it took on a life of its own. They returned to Australia in May 1999, and are enjoying readjusting. Judy worked as an academic librarian until the birth of Tamsin in 1993, and since then has been a full-time mother to her and to Angus, born 1996. She is now embarking on a new career as a freelance journalist. Her writing can be found all over the Internet now, and she is the owner/editor of an Australian parenting EZine, Chloe & Jack.