Each week during the spring and fall months, I get to travel the state to watch my children participate in their favorite pastime: soccer.
When my children are not at games or practices, our home turns into a soccer field. As far as the children are concerned, no space is off-limits. And with four boys, you can imagine the ruckus that is our daily, even hourly, life.
But I also have two daughters, one of whom plays on a club soccer team. Aspen, who is almost 10, can be found kicking, juggling and defending the soccer ball right alongside and against her brothers, holding her own in the process.
And while she may not have the rough, scrappy and (dare I say?) barbaric form of play that her brothers do, she has something that gives her the edge.
Rather than pushing and shoving her way to the goal, she glides through with finesse, in the most unassuming of ways, often catching her brothers off guard.
She has even taken many boys at school by surprise. The cute, blond-haired, blue-eyed, petite little girl with dimples can hold her own at recess and still be a pretty girl.
That's why one particular cheer that I hear at her soccer games bothers me:
"Mirror, mirror on the wall,
"Pretty girls don’t play ball.
"So ... LET’S GET UGLY!"
I know, I know. Some may be rolling their eyes at this — that I'm overthinking a harmless chant that is only meant to get girls pumped up to play hard in the game ahead.
But there's something about this cheer that doesn’t sit well with me. I don't like hearing my little girl scream it at the top of her lungs.
In sports today, female athletes are told to “play like the boys,” to be scrappy and "get ugly." But why? Female athletes are beautiful the way they are. And there is nothing quite like watching a female athlete who plays her sport with finesse and grace.
Others will disagree, and that is fine. But when it comes to my daughters, I will continue to encourage them to play like girls — by complimenting them on how graceful they move with the ball and never telling them to “play like the boys.”
And when I hear the chant "pretty girls don’t play ball," I will (as always) make eye contact with my daughter as we mouth the words: “Yes, they do.”
Arianne is a mother of six young children. Her downtime is spent running the trails of the Wasatch Mountains and beyond. Contact her at ariannebrown1@gmail.com, search her Facebook page A Mother's Write or follow her on Twitter at arimom6.