I'm Not A Soccer Mom
Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 11:00AM
This is a sponsored post from BlogHer and GATORADE.
I am not a soccer mom.
Okay, well technically I am a soccer mom because Faith plays soccer 2-3 seasons a year. But there is more to me than just "soccer mom." I have much more depth than that.
I am also a dressage mom, volleyball mom, Tae Kwon Do mom, wrestling mom and (gulp) stage mom for dance.
I am not just a soccer mom. I am a Sports Mom!
How did a complete non-athlete end up at the sidelines of so many sporting events a year? To this day I am not a sports enthusiast. If my kid isn't in the game/tournament/event, I don't watch.
But I am an enthusiast of my children and whatever it is they are doing which is why I've also sat through baseball games, swimming and track meets and an ill-fated season of touch football.
I love watching my kids explore their interests, find their talents and pursue their passions. So we schedule our lives around practices and plan vacations around games. We put big time mileage on the cars driving around town to different fields and arenas and venues.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
In today's world, signing up for teams and paying fees and buying equipment and driving, driving, driving are just part of the parenting gig.
In this day and age if your kids want to play, you have to schedule it. If they want to learn skills and become competitive you're going to sit on your share of sidelines. I don't know any parents of kids older than six who haven't done their share of cheering.
Sometimes, like Hayden playing touch football, it's a short term obligation. But if you have a kid who finds a sport they truly enjoy and are possibly good at, what are you going to do? Tell them "no you can't play with all your friends and get exercise"?
Obviously not.
Like all thing worth doing, there is a level of commitment involved, but I also strive for balance. Balance with family time, school work and relaxation. I'm on the "low maintenance" end of sports parenting. For other families, attending games and out of town tournaments is the way to relax and spend time as a family.
What I love about the new site Gatorade has put together for Sports Moms is that it's for all of us who sit on the sidelines cheering our kids on.
Gatorade surveyed 900 moms across the U.S. "to identify their perceived roles, challenges, motivations and rewards, as it relates to their children’s sports, and took a deeper dive to better understand the moms behind today’s young athletes."
Then they took that info and put together a site a site just for us: Gatorade Sports Moms. I've taken a look around the site and like what I see. There's a lot of good advice about nutrition and how I can best feed my young athletes before and after games to help make sure they are safe, healthy and performing their best. I think you'll also enjoy the videos of real Sports Moms doing their best to support their kids.
This month, to celebrate the launch of their new Sports Moms site, Gatorade is giving away a $100 Gift Card for Dick's Sporting Goods to an Our Front Door reader!
Entering is easy. Just leave me a comment telling me which sport you most like to sit on the sidelines for.
For an additional entry, check out the list below.
Rules:
No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry
methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment
on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on
this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about
an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older
Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.
You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be
selected.
The Official Rules are available here.
Sweepstakes runs from March 31st until April 30th 2011
Be sure to visit the BlogHer Round Up page for more info and additional chances to win!
Reader Comments (171)
Presumably, it will be soccer. Little early to know. ;) I think I finally have my husband convinced that we're both too short to have a football player.
Dance. I know it's not an "official" sport, but dancers are athletes, so I root for them!
I love soccer and baseball equally. It's so much more fun than taking pictures in a gym!
Soccer! I can actually understand the sport rules and I'm usually
watching a dear grandchild playing it!
My kids are out of the house now but I've sat on many a sideline...field hockey, lacrosse, swimming, volleyball and fourteen years of dance which, let me tell you is a lot of minutes of dance!
I love Dicks for myself now : ) I buy Zumba/workout clothes there. I'm supposed to wear them to work out but quite often I wear them to lounge.
I enjoy watching college football, professional football, and most especially English futbol
Football! :) Especially if my baby brother is playing.
My 6 year old is playing baseball for the first time this season & I am so excited to watch him play!!
Well I just signed Ry up for micro baseball that starts in June. I'm sure he'll have a blast and I know win or lose, I'll love cheering him on!
I'm not a mom; but, I grew up playing and watching sports! I think my favorite is more like a list than a single sport: ice hockey, college football, tennis, and soccer are among my tops. Although I really enjoyed baseball games when my brother played. It's so much better when you know someone on the team.
I love to watch football! I have no children to watch but I have spent many hours watching my husband play and coach. Who else is so committed (or should I say bored) that they go watch the Coach. What I find funny is there have been seasons where he coaches from the press box and the entire game goes by and I haven't seen him. Nuts, I know! I have a passion for watching people do what they are passionate about. To him, his passion is football and I love to watch him interact with players on the sidelines. He is good at what he does and I am so proud of him and his boys on the field.
As for the Dicks's Sporting Goods gift card, it would easily be spent on something for my husband but I really want some new golf shoes so if I win, IT IS MINE!!!!!
Luckily, I don't have any kids yet. But in the past few years I've realized how much of a commitment it was for my parents to drive me to every swim practice and sit at every single meet of mine. Not to mention be refs and meet manager, and summer team president. Oy! I can only hope to be as awesome as my parents were at encouraging my sister and I with sports.
With that said, I think I would like my child to do something besides swimming so I could sit on the sideline and learn a new sport :)
My son is 6, and the only sport he has played so far is soccer. It is so fun to watch him!! So, at this point, I would have to say soccer is my favorite!!! We are getting ready to take a swing (HA!) at t-ball. I hope it goes well!! :)
Soccer! Although we've already missed 2 practices due to cold and SNOW! Although my son has tried basketball too. I think he'd like to try again, but if i were to sign him up again, it would need to be someplace other than where we did it the first time.
I hope and pray our genes combine to form tennis players or basketball players because we can both sit and watch those sports ALL.DAY.LONG.
Baseball!! Nothing like a hot dog, nachos, & a cold drink outside on a warm spring day :) This may sound completely corny, but it makes me feel American :-P
I love to sit and watch gymnastics. Except when my daughter falls and I have to restrain myself from running to her side :)
Currently, I am -unsuccessfully- trying to make a baby. So I'm not a soccer mom of any kind yet. But I do love sports! I love playing them, watching them, living and breathing them! My favorite to watch or play is softball/baseball. I root for my friends locally and for the Red Sox when I'm glued to the TV.
please pick me...you know why i am the best candidate to win this.
My kids aren't in sports yet, but judging by the size of little j's tummy, he will make a good linebacker. And I would love to cheer him on in my favorite sport to watch - football.
Being a mother of 5 kids and 4 of them or boys. I feel like I am always sitting on the sideline. But by the end of this summer I should have a pretty good tan!! I will have 4 boys playing baseball this summer. Myfavorite sport to watch them play is basketball. I sometimes get to competive watching them play.
Oh how I love baseball - my son just passed the sandy koufax league age and doesn't play for his highschool so we stuck the little girl in softball. Yes my husband has to coach, he is an addict for all things baseball/softball so there you go. My son does play football for the highschool and is just as good as he was in baseball so it's equally addictive - but somehow nothing quite compares with the crack of bat!
Baseball. I just love the atmosphere of it and the happy faces.
My son plays ice hockey so I feel your pain. Except out practices are at 5:30 am on Saturday mornings!
My oldest is in kindergarten so I haven't been on too many sidelines yet. So far just dance and gymnastics.
I'm a huge fan of watching volleyball!