Why does your offspring not support Charlton?

I converted from the darkside.
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.

My eldest daughter is a Charlton supporter & used to come with me until she moved away. Alas my youngest one supports the spuds because she had a crush on Gary Lineker when she was younger.

My daughter has absolutely no interest in football whatsoever. 

My youngest son has no choice, his middle name is Charlton.

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. 

My eldest is 10 years older than his brother (who is Charlton) and was a United supporter 'til me telling him that it was shameful that he was supporting a team hundreds of miles away just because they kept winning things finally got to him. I impressed upon the fact that it is far better to support a side nearer to where you come from even if it means sacrificing the glory.

He's been a Welling United supporter ever since.

My daughters 'support' Charlton and @Len\'s_little_girl is still a season ticket holder despite being abroad most of the time. In 'normal' circumstances she gets back for as many games as she can. The other two came when they were younger and one came to Wembley with us (the other would have done but was on holiday pre arranged).

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!

Sadly neither my daughter or son like football - my daughter has been to some matches and enjoyed the atmosphere (her last game was when we played Hartlepool and the away fans dressed as Smurfs and the Red Devil’s parachuted into the Valley and we were crowned League 1 champs - I think the only way I could have topped that was if she came to Wembley May last year, which she would have hadn’t she been in Crete) - my son has no interest, cricket and Formula 1 are his sports - I don’t mind, as you can’t force them to like a sport - however if they did like football, they wouldn’t have had any opportunity other than to support Charlton (just like my Dad did to me in 1976 😊)

Charlton are an albatross but one that you cannot bring yourself to turn your back on despite every ounce of rationality and logic screaming that it would be the right thing to do for your happiness.  Supporting them is 99% misery, frustration and disappointment, punctuated by the odd once or twice a decade event that bring a sheer and unrivalled joy that I don't suspect fans of big, fashionable clubs can ever truly experience. And what joy that is....




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.

bobmunro said:

Big_Bad_World said:

If your children support anyone other than who you support then you've failed as a parent.

I absolutely agree!

Reminds me of the story of when I took my two to their first game at The Valley (apologies as I think I've told this story on more than one occasion on here!). Boxing Day against Norwich in 1997 - my two were 6 and 8 and had been talking about very little else in the weeks leading up to Christmas but I was aware that their mates at their football club supported a variety of other teams - Newcastle at the time was a very popular choice mainly because of Shearer.

We left home (in Kent) early and got to The Valley around 11.00 for a 12.30 kick-off. As we walked to The Valley from the car they were getting more and more excited, but as we approached the turnstiles I turned to them both and said that if they walk through those turnstiles they are committing to supporting Charlton all their lives - and if they didn't want to make that commitment then we could turn around and walk back to the car, allowing them to choose whatever team they wanted to support. No surprise what happened and my manipulative behaviour worked a treat! We won 2-1 which helped!

They came over last Sunday for Father's Day and one of my presents was the programme from that game that my youngest had sourced online

Love that 

I hope nobody from the NSPCC ever sees this thread.

My grandad was a Charlton fan, my dad is a Charlton fan, me, my brother and sister are Charlton fans, my 2 are Charlton fans, my brothers 2 are Charlton fans.  Like you oohhaahh, I think I am reasonable generally but when it comes to Charlton, there is no choice.

I've got 2 girls that hate football unfortunately, but my brother has two boys, youngest of which was a good little player too, he trained with a chelsea foundation one day and they gave him a chelsea ball to keep! When he got home and told his dad he now supported chelsea, my brother took him into the garden and did a "Av' it" with the ball over the garden fence! (Peter Kay advert!)
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!