Rob Elliot , Charlton fan saying his kids are Geordie fans prompted me on this .
I can understand it with him being their player etc
I know there are a few on here (not including the scum or palarse fans ) whose kids support other clubs and can understand if children live with the other parent and that side of the family get the child to support another team .
I like to consider myself fairly reasonable in general but where football is concerned there is no rationale and no child of mine was ever gonna be allowed to support another team.
The youngest has a Barca kit , father in law bought for him but he get’s palace’d off and abused when he wears it and they all (4 boys ) know it’s Charlton and no one else .
Do we like so and so dad , no we only like Charlton and we hate murrrrr (the M word is banned in our house )
I have one son not in to footy , motor racing geek but he still wears a Charlton kit and comes to the odd game .
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(this is obviously not true)
Over 10 family members are palace , me i managed to get away.
For all the pain id rather us in the conference than support that shit.
Not an option for me and thank god, for all the pain, supporting the Charlton is absolutely the best thing in the world...
I was fortunate as Charlton were top side when I was growing up. Finishing top 10 in premier league was easy to defend myself in the playground when being mocked by glory hunters.
The eldest one is a manure glory hunter (not much glory at the moment haha) but still comes to Charlton games.
They are both in their thirties and at least the younger one will get everything when we kick the bucket. Only joking Gary.
When my son was 6, I took him to the New Zealand friendly at The Valley for his first “big” game.
He must’ve been impressed because from that game on, it has only been Charlton.
Actually, looking back, what an awful father I was, cajoling him into supporting CAFC.
He's been a Welling United supporter ever since.
It will be a harder job getting my grandsons interested I think. Given the heartache we are going through at the moment I sometimes think I should leave well alone and let them chart their own course. I won't though!
For all the rivalry I have more respect for fans who support their local/ family clubs like Millwall and Palace than someone from a non related area with no roots or family links proclaiming they're a follower of the more glamorous institutions.
Same as those who support the likes of Watford, Fulham, lower league clubs etc.
I can engage with these people in a way about football that I could talk to them for hours and empathise whereas as soon as someone with a southern accent mentions they support united or Liverpool or a South Londoner or Kenter proclaiming they're Arsenal or Chelsea I will have the odd level of chit chat but will never see them as credible as someone who is truly part of the fabric of the club. Inverted snobbery in that sense but that's the way I see it. They are not an equal.
In that sense as the kids get older they will be indoctrinated into the weird miserable cult that is supporting a club like ours and become the 4th generation of my family to suffer it.
It is character building and every time a Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs or other big club fan mocks you for supporting silly little irrelevant Charlton I laugh inside because the irony is that their "support" for those clubs is entirely superficial, baseless and arbitrary. It is very unlikely proper, rooted supporters of those big clubs ever deride you for supporting the Charltons in my experience, (mainly the Sky Sports fanboys whose views on football,(and well, anything in life to be fair), are not worth a toss and I expect they also roll their eyes at the bandwagon jumping plastics that rock up at their club.
Supporting a club for life like Charlton is a commitment, a vocation, a tradition that is passed down through the generations like some unwelcome genetic quirk, incurable by modern science.
A cross to bear. But a blessing all the same.
It's unfashionable and, at times downright depressing, but is character- building and meaningful and gives you a sense of soul, belonging and ingraining into the very fabric of the club that many of the big club sneerers will never ever understand or live regardless of how much "Official Club Merchandise", sky subscriptions, stadium tours and birthday trips to games they immerse themselves in in a subconcious attempt to validate their choice and make it as bona fide as those who flock to the Valley, Selhurst, The Den and countless other off the beaten track footballing destinations. It will never be as authentic, heartfelt or deeply passionate.
That is why I'll be ensuring the family curse is passed on with great vigour. (Starting with turning off netflix in an hour and insisting they watch a jumpy stream of "their team" play out some very mediocre football against a similarly unfashionable but much treasured QPR).
If they follow anyone else (not talking about the youthful flirtations of "supporting" a big club for a week or two as many of us did as kids now and then) then I will be truly disappointed as it won't just be me losing out on the father and daughter/son bonding experiences I've looked forward to for years...but I think in a big way they will miss out too in what it does for your character and identity.
Ultimately they can do what they want, increasingly so in this softly softly namby pamby "don't ever upset your children" world we now inhabit but I for one will not be partaking in any such nonsense as buying them any other clubs gear or taking them anyone else if they stray from the righteous path let alone entertaining it.
If I've had to suffer it for 40 years then they bloody well can too.
He then made him paint CAFC on the garden fence in 4foot high letters! (They were going to paint the fence anyway!) Billy is still a Charlton fan now!