Why Do Mom's Like Boffing? By Gloria Swenson

My teenage son is active in boffing. Actually, my whole family are boffers! And often I am asked why a mother such as myself would encourage family members of all ages to continue participating in such an exercise.

Actually, it is simple.

It keeps a family together. Our whole family loves boffing. Yep, starting with what some would call "oldsters" like my husband and myself all the way down the line to our 10 year old, we all enjoy boffing! Even when our oldest comes over, she will not hesitate to grab up a boffer and go for it. (yes, its still an outdoor thing, not in the house please) But please never be too old to smile and laugh.

Stimulates Imagination. With boffers, you can be king of the hill, or fighting off a dragon and rescuing a prince (not going to find me waiting to be rescued), or taking on a pirate captain like Davey Jones. There is no limit to what you can imagine and I like that in a game.

It's not a video game. You don't need to have other stuff to use it and it get folks up off the couch.

There is no age limit! While it might be tougher for a small one to hold a boffer, I can play with a four or sixty year old. And no, you are never too old to play. When we go to SCA events, you see a wide range of ages that engage in boffing. You are also very likely to see entire family's there all together. And a tight knit family ranks high in my books!

It's Safe! You know if you ever had brothers and sisters growing up at some point you got into whatever it was they were doing. Well, sometimes kids don't take into consideration that older siblings or friends may not be fighting as hard as they seem. And older siblings are more likely to be careful where they hit. I like the fact that this is safer than the sticks and broom handles I used for swords as a kid. Especially using the SoftSwords that my son makes!

I'm not channeling my mother, Yeah I loved my mom, but everyone can remember something their parents said that to this day (whether its true or not) that makes them cringe. And among the phrases I can so remember my mother (truthfully speaking sometimes it was someone else's mother) screaming at my friends and myself were the following; "Stop that this instant!" "Your going to take someone's eye out if you keep that up!" or my favorite "It's all fun and games till I have to take someone to the hospital" (That one was true and Tommy Morris where ever you are I still cringe when I think about how I nailed you with that baseball bat when you didn't believe everyone when they said "Don't stand there man she throws the bat" Sorry). With boffing, I never have that worry!

Size is not always an advantage. When I was growing up, I had two older brothers who did not hesitate to use me as a punching bag. Yeah my parents would threaten to punish me if I didn't rat out my brothers, but my brothers always threatened to pound me if I did. So either way I went it was going to be no fun, So if I had boffers back then, maybe my child hood would have been less painful. I think it's great that you can be smaller than someone and still take them out. The bigger person may have the reach but one of my favorite shots is going for the knees and I don't have to bend down to get there.

You don't need a caravan to transport equipment! Boffers go almost anywhere. It is easy to fit them into a full car when we go camping or just about anywhere we go. We take them to the lake and buy foam squishey water balls and play water baseball. We take boffers on picnics and to the park. We never hesitate to share when we see someone watching us boff. We even take and carry them with us to local festivals when we think there might be other like minded folks.

But my favorite reason is: People smile when they boff. It's not something they even know they are doing. It may not start as a smiling thing for some folks, but if you hand someone a boffer and they forget their surroundings and start going for it the smile will come through every time. And as a mom and a person I think smiles count for a lot.

So as a mother, there isn't just one thing I like about boffing. But as you can see, there is a lot about boffing that is there to like and enjoy for the whole family. I would love to hear your thoughts.