TORONTO — By the time Blue Jays fan Suzanne Jangda and her two children arrived at school Thursday morning, the courtyard was empty and the students were already inside. They were late.
The morning was stressful and “tough for all of us,” Jangda said, because they stayed up later than usual to watch the Jays beat the Seattle Mariners in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.
“I’m a huge Blue Jays fan and it’s my mission to turn my kids into them,” said Jangda, who was looking forward to another late school night before Thursday’s game and a more manageable game Friday night when the series continues at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park.
Wednesday's game lasted nearly three hours, but it allowed the boys to watch until the fifth inning, about an hour past their usual 8 p.m. bedtime and long enough to catch George Springer's homer.
It came after the four- and seven-year-olds endured a sluggish Tuesday, thanks to a later Monday evening watching the second game of the best-of-seven series.
“It doesn't happen all the time. Accept it if you can,” Jangda reasoned in a telephone interview late in the afternoon.
By Thursday evening it was clear that Jangda's children needed a rest.
“Turns out my kids are definitely showing FATIGUE,” Jangda said in a text at 7 p.m., about an hour and a half before the first pitch of Game 4.
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“So, tonight I'll go to the bar to watch with my friends and make them go to bed at 8 like usual. Without me at home, they won't be as keen.”
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Like many baseball fans with school-aged children, Jangda realized she had to weigh the value of supporting her entire family for the Jays' championship bid against the likely prospect of exhausting days.
Parents who want to share their enthusiasm for the Blue Jays with their children should be prepared to make adjustments, agrees Lisa Fujimoto, a mother of two and a Toronto elementary school teacher.
As a die-hard Jay fan, she faces the same challenges as her 12- and 9-year-old boys, each of whom stays up much later than normal to make the playoffs.
“We all have bad Jay fever right now,” she said, suspecting adrenaline is keeping her boys ready for class.
“I do think that anxiety was part of what got them through the days,” she reflected, adding that any sleep deficit was offset by a very early bedtime on non-game days.
It helps that they are a little older and more aware of their physical limitations, Fujimoto added, but she also imposed some rules.
There's homework to be done first, and the lights go out as soon as the game ends. As a result, she says, her boys are busy when there are breaks in gameplay—that's when they shower, put on pajamas, get their school bags ready and lay out their clothes for the next day so they're ready for the morning.
“It’s really motivating for them,” she said.
Fujimoto didn't notice whether the kids in her first and second grades were more foggy than usual due to MLB playoff worries, but noted that Jay's chatter had infiltrated class discussions. Because every child is different, she advised parents to use their children's cues as to whether and how much they can cope with a disrupted schedule.
Elisha Muscat described her nine-year-old son as “obsessed” with the series but still sent him to bed at his usual time of 9.30pm on Wednesday due to a cross-country skiing competition the next morning.
That didn't stop him from shouting every five minutes, asking her for an update on the account. He finally fell asleep around 10 pm, she guessed.
“He falls asleep reluctantly, waiting for news from the next room,” Muscat chuckled.
Muscat is expected to allow his son to follow Thursday night's game via MLB.com.
“We don't have a specific marker, but if we were in the seventh inning and had a big lead, or if we were in the sixth inning and down 10 runs or something like that, then I would say, 'OK, time to go to bed,'” she said.
“But if it's a close game, I think it will be late in the evening.”
Jangda said she plans to let her children watch Friday's game, which is expected to be an earlier matchup starting at 6:08 p.m. ET.
She's eager to give her son the same memories she had watching the Jays win the World Series title in 1992 when she was seven years old.
“It's a big deal to see. It's amazing. I wouldn't want him to miss it. Because I remember watching them play in the World Series as a kid,” she said.
“I don't think I could put my seven-year-old to bed during a World Series game. It's impossible. Why would I do that?”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
