Real or Wii?

Brady and I play tennis a lot at the high school tennis courts in Franklin. No one is ever there, which means we can bring Massey to run around and be our ball dog. She's also not afraid to get hit by the ball — just ask Brady.

Every so often, some of the kids whose parents are running around the track get sidetracked from chasing each other up and down and bleachers and come to watch us play tennis. I don't know why, but they are always mesmerized by our skills.

Earlier this spring, these two young boys were watching us play, and were so excited about the game that they had enough gumption to ask us if they could use our rackets and hit the ball around for a while. Of course I said yes, since I love teachable moments, but they were too busy being boys and trying to peg each other with the ball to want to learn the "right" way to play tennis.

We finally got them on either side of the net and had them trying to nicely hit the ball to one another.

Me (trying to start a conversation): "Is this the first time you've ever played tennis?"

Boy #1 (actually working up a sweat): "Yes! And, it's so much fun."

Boy #2 (as serious as can be): "Well, does Wii tennis count? Cause we've both played Wii tennis."

Me (thinking, who is this kid?): "No, Wii tennis doesn't count."

Boy #1 (slamming the ball at his buddy): "Well, real tennis is way more fun than Wii tennis."

I just looked over at Brady, sighed and thought to myself, "Well of course real tennis is more fun than Wii tennis. Wii tennis isn't tennis! It's a video game!"

So today I make this promise. Never will my kids EVER compare real tennis to Wii tennis. Or ANY real sport to a Wii sport. EVER. Pinky swear.

322 words.