Purple Balloons

I don't have much of consequence to write about today...just your mundane suburban Mom minutiae. Nobody wants to hear about my new blender or the fact that I completely cleared out the kids playspace and reclaimed my dining room. (It was a Herculean effort).

So I thought I would share a picture with you.

Last week I wrote a piece called To Suck or Not to Suck in which I mentioned that our local ballpark had done a memorial of sorts for the Bluffton Ohio team who lost five members in the bus crash on 175 in near downtown Atlanta.

I was preoccupied with uniforms and hats and keeping 12 helium balloons from flying away or rendering a small child unconscious as they whipped about in the breeze, so I never even thought about bringing my camera. I wished later that I had, but I told myself that a camera could never capture the majesty of that moment, or the genuine sentiment behind it.

This image appeared on the league website. You can only see about half the kids, and you can't see all the teary eyed parents in the stands, but I think it still conveys some of the emotion that we all experienced during that special moment.



So, to give this inconsequential little blurb of a post some merit, I will say this...

People like to poke fun at so-called "Soccer Moms" and castigate team parents. They like to accuse folks that are heavily involved in their child's sporting activities of trying to live vicariously through their offspring. Undoubtedly, for some, this is true. But most parents are just trying to do a good thing for their kids.

They’re trying to find something that keeps their kids moving and gets them out in the fresh air and sunshine. They’re trying to combat the allure of television and video games, and later, drugs and alcohol. They’re trying to give them a sense of belonging and teach them about fairness, sportsmanship and commitment.

I can’t see that as a bad thing, and I’ll own the “Soccer Mom” label…proudly.