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No, this is not one of those blogs where I talk about my awesome mothering skills.

Remember the term “Soccer Mom?” It has come into standard usage, and the image of a mom driving her kids to soccer practice and games in a mini-van is pretty much what pops up, isn’t it? I had to look it up though, just to see where it did come from, because I know my mom was not a soccer mom. She was a band mom, a swimming mom, and a working mom. And we didn’t have mini-vans when I was a kid. I suppose she might have been the ultimate seventies version of a soccer mom, though. She drove a Ford LTD station wagon…golden with wooden side panels.

The phrase soccer mom broadly refers to a middle-class suburban woman who spends a significant amount of her time transporting her school-age children to their sporting events or other activities. Indices of American magazines and newspapers show relatively little usage of the term until a 1995 Denver city council election. It came into widespread use during the 1996 United States presidential election

But, I digress.

My eight year old son took soccer lessons for a while and seemed to sort of like it, but not so much that he complained when I suggest we drop them. He loves Tae Kwon Do and, as it turns out, he really loves playing Ultimate. You might immediately ask, “Does Laurie mean Ultimate Frisbee?” since that is what the game was originally called.

A little wikipedia searching explains that the word “Frisbee” is copyrighted, and therefore, the game is now simply called “Ultimate” especially since the Frisbee Disc is not the only one in play. So, I have a son who is begging and pleading to play Ultimate. The school team plays on Friday afternoons, and the volunteer coach seems to be a really nice guy. I have to say “thanks” to him for bringing this game into my son’s life. One nice thing about this team is there are other parents involved, and we’ll get some carpooling set up so I’m not going to be crazy with driving all the time. But, I’ll do my share when it comes to game carpooling and the like. What else can I do?

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