Basketball Moms May Throw The Next Election
Soccer moms may have lost the political clout they would need to overthrow the next election. Dads are diluting their numbers. Moms are not the only ones on the sidelines at their kid’s soccer games anymore. Dads are finally taking a masculine stand and appeasing their wives wishes.
Dads may be throwing the national electoral out-of-whack because in their manly assertiveness they are actually attending their kids soccer games! Sure, moms still rule the bandage aisle, the school bake sales, and even the world of baby birthing, but not the soccer games.
Dads occupy just as many seats, if not more than mom’s do. I would say, based on my own experience and mathematical recollection, dad’s make up one out of every two parents who attended a soccer game. I base this on our own parental attendance during our children’s past soccer season.
My wife and I attended lots of soccer games, too. My daughter, who was a freshman in high school, played on both her junior varsity and varsity teams. I think she played about 345 games.
My son in elementary school played about 121 games in our city league. My youngest daughter, who was only 4 years old, played her first soccer season. She probably played 88 games. Did I say played? I meant to say…well, I guess “played” is the right word. It’s just that my son and older daughter are so serious about sticking to the rules, winning as a team, and getting that ball into their opponents’ goal, that for my 4 year old, it is playing.
I suspect that a thousand years ago, when soccer was just an up and coming Saturday morning activity for our American way of life, only mothers came out to their children’s soccer games. Dad’s probably had to go hunting. They most likely worked all week long in factories, office buildings, or some other form of primitive employment, but on Saturday morning, they had to go hunting.
A thousand years later, I’m suggesting that soccer moms no longer hold the same political clout that they use to when guys with long scraggly beards were voted into the white house.
I see a new trend emerging with basketball. I see history repeating itself. We may be heading a thousand years back to the future because at my son’s recent basketball practice, I was the only dad there!
Oh yeah, I forgot, there was another dad there. I didn’t see him when I first scanned the gym and was startled to see that I was alone in crowd of moms. There were four teams practicing, too. Four teams of 3rd and 4th grade basketball players are like a hundred kids? A hundred 3rd and 4th grade basketball players with no dads?
(I guess I was not the only one who would rather be at a soccer game. Except for the guy with the laptop. Hey, wait a minute…I was sitting there scribbling with a pen and a nerdy pocket paper pad while he was sophisticatedly typing on a high tech data facilitation tool…just who is the real writer here? I guess me, because I can afford a pocket pad of paper.)
The new soccer moms may actually be basketball moms! The future of our nation may be shifting to the bleachers of the basketball courts. This could be a trend that may leave dads behind, or at least, still standing on the soccer field sidelines.
Dads may not be as interested in basketball as they are in other sports. Football rules my sports world. My children are all involved in and excel in soccer, but as spectators, my whole family is devoted to football.
My wife is an Alabama girl with a long lineage of Bear Bryant worship and crimson tide devotion. I, on the other hand, grew-up at the RCA altar of Woody Hays and still follow the continuing success of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Yes, I am from a little known town called Rossford, Ohio. I know everybody goes around telling people they are from Rossford, but I really am!
Football is interesting to watch
Football keeps my interest. They pause, they strategies, they plan, and then they attack! There is gnashing and wailing of lineman and quarterback hand-offs and passes and blocking. Maybe basketball would be more exciting if a guard could sack the opponent during a lay-up. Maybe that would bring more dads out to rout for their offspring’s.
Now that I think about it, I don’t think the moms were really that interested in basketball either.
I saw one mother writing out Christmas cards. I saw several congregated in small groups talking. They may have been planning campaign tactics for their favorite upcoming candidates in the next election.
I wonder how many passenger vans were in the parking lot?
© Copyright 2007 by Steve Durkac. All rights reserved.
Steve Durkac is a leadership trainer, grandpa, and a bad ventriloquist, but he did write a funny book
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