We’d all been through this before so I was hoping it would be a little easier than last year (http://www.indyschild.com/Blog-6334.114134-7082.114134-March-Madness.html), sadly I was wrong.
It was, once again time to fill out or NCAA Tournament brackets. I printed out five brackets and handed one out to each person in our family. Our youngest immediately colored all over the front of her paper and our oldest fired off twenty-five questions before I could even get myself seated.
Oh boy, here we go again.
Mercifully, my wife helped our youngest with her picks. It’s amazing how much a person can change in a year. Last year when we did this, our then one-year-old, could at best, repeat one of the teams to pick as a winner. This year, we couldn’t shut her up. Much of the time it seemed like she was talking just to hear her own voice.
After 20 minutes of answering questions, attempting to explain seeding, settling minor arguments, uncrumpling a couple of brackets, and using very little actual basketball knowledge, we had our teams.
Here are our “professional” picks for national champ.
Mom picked Kansas.
I picked Wichita St.
Our oldest (and possibly wisest chooser) picked Michigan St.
Our son (unknowingly) went with super-underdog Wofford.
Finally our youngest chose Oregon to win it all.
This year’s tournament will be extra special for our family. Sponsor Dove Men+Care (promoter of dad blogs everywhere) donated tickets so our family could go to a round of tournament games held right here in Indy! Dove Men+Care has been celebrating both March Madness and fatherhood for the past four plus years. Hopefully when the tournament comes to Indy, we will still have a few teams left in our brackets to root for.
And what would the NCAA tournament be without a prize for the winning bracket? Other than bragging rights, if one of the kids wins, they get to choose which restaurant we eat at one evening. If one of the parents wins, they get to watch the other parent cook dinner (while all three kids “help” make dinner). I’m not sure how much you enjoy cooking with your kids, but in our family this is a pretty hight stakes gamble.
Of course, I’ll keep you posted on how things go.
-Pete