Kaya
The Sports Metaphor: In past blogs (Coach Marx vs. Coach Smith & PCC: Politically Correct Capitalism), I’ve used sports to bring politics/economics into the parenting equation. Like sports, the world of money, in a way, is about what’s fair and what’s not. And our daughters, Ava, Gia, and Kaya, should heed, as they have this definition of fair:
“When I get mine!”
Divvying up Treats: Whatever it is, ice cream, cookies, or candy, nothing bugs the girls more than knowing that their sister has more. Thus we hear this a lot, “You gave her more ice cream, that’s not fair!” When will we know we’ve taught our girls right? When we hear, “Hey, you gave me more ice cream than the others, so I’ll give some of mine to them.”
Gia
The Soccer Sudoku Puzzle: I started coaching basketball two years ago, and now am coaching soccer. I’ve discovered that my daughters concept of fairness is shared by their peers. Girls want to play where they want (usually forward or midfield) and when. And if they don’t, it’s “Coach, no fair!” Youth soccer plays nine at a time, but with fourteen on the team, it’s difficult to get everyone an equal shot at all positions. The other coach, Timo Norring, and I spend too much time figuring out how to fairly spread the wealth than we do coaching.
The Metaphor: Socialism never creates wealth. After capitalism has created wealth, socialism distributes to improve society. The dialectic between the two economic philosophies is absurd, there should be a happy marriage between capitalism and socialism. Enter soccer.
Because our team is good (we’re 4-0 and so far have outscored our opponents 25-1) we can distribute the wealth (playing time). It’s fun to play and fun to win. But it’s not fair to distribute wealth and lose (see Venezuela).
Ava
Cute Anecdote – What’s Fair in Baseball: I took my daughter Kaya, and my nephew Elliott, to a Seattle Mariners game a couple weeks ago. I wanted to see how much they knew about the sport, so I asked if they knew how many innings were in a game. Elliott said, “Three.” So then I asked Elliott to tell me what the difference between fair and foul is.
He said, “Fair is when they play by the rules and foul is when they don’t.”
That’s all folks, stay tuned for next month’s blog.
Notes of a Sexist Stay-at-home Father 