Sep 12, 201209:09 AMCup of Joe
Your weekly dose of strange parenting news, trends, and polls
Steelers booties and Eagles binky?
Working in a retail sporting goods store for nearly five years taught me a lot about how families choose their favorite football teams.
Some families subscribe to the “birds of a feather stick together” mentality where all family members root for the same team. Other families opt to split teams right down the middle—especially in families of four where one parent and child can root for one team and the other half of the family can root for another (often leading to intense bouts of trash talk in families who are split between the Steelers and Ravens).
It’s all a lot of fun having kids that root for the same team as their parents, but I’ve found that it causes a phenomenon in which many parents attempt to steer their child’s football team decision from birth.
Every season, I see a few parents strolling around with babies adorned with team booties, team pacifiers, team baby blankets, a team diaper bag and any other team paraphernalia they can get their hands on. I once saw a parent go as far as to equip their infant with team earrings. Some parents are clearly dedicated.
While I do love the Eagles, I don’t plan on pushing my children to love my team. I hope to let them make their own decisions as they get older. However my plan does have one significant flaw—how to keep the cursed Steelers influence of my wife at bay. When we occasionally stroll through the store, my wife never misses a chance to point out the adorable Steelers toddler clothes. I have a sneaking suspicion we’ll be receiving a lot of Steelers baby items from her side of the family as well.
For now, I’ll just keep rolling my eyes and saying, “you wish” to her Steelers remarks, as I plan for a way to keep the Steelers plague at arms-length.
Did you try to influence your kids to like a certain sports team? Share your answer in our comments section below:
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