LCM

Our family attended a women's college basketball game a couple of months ago. It was one of those promotional days, so the crowd was larger than usual, and with a high ratio of children to adults. I fully enjoy taking my daughters to these events -- I want them to see active, competitive girls and women and know that being active and athletic is an option for each of them.

As an attendee (a.k.a. fan) at a sporting event, there is much to take in, to experience, to be entertained by, and for young children the biggest star doesn't wear a sport uniform. No, the center of attention for young children is someone wearing a garish furry costume with an oversized head and team colors.

"Aaiiiiieee! It's Local College Mascot*! Local College Mascot, come here, come here!"

After a first half of spending equal time watching the game as watching out for Local College Mascot (LCM), I took the two girls to the family restroom. Thank goodness for the public family restroom! (Though having two potty seats would've helped things move along more smoothly.) At the conclusion of our break, I looked into the arena. Halftime had less than five minutes to go, and the halftime show was wrapping up. Rats, the kids would've liked that. So, I figured to burn off some of their energy by walking around the concourse under the seats of the arena. We made it a quarter way around and our pace was slow, and I was about to turn around and backtrack to our section when I stopped. I couldn't believe my luck.

"What, daddy?"

There, behind a gaggle of eleven year-old girls and scattered adults was LCM.

"Girls, look! It's Local College Mascot."

Genevieve followed my eyes, locked in on her target, and took full advantage of her five year-oldness. Small enough to weave around the legs of adults and squeeze through and end-around the eleven year-olds, she pounced on Local College Mascot as he was signing the t-shirt of a pre-pubescent fan, hugging his furry leg with all her little happy joy.

Reesa shouted the name of LCM again and again, but didn't budge from my side. I finally had to rescue LCM from the clutches of my elder daughter. Later in the game, Reesa regretted not hugging LCM and got her mommy to carry her over for a personal greeting.

So here we are, watching our children scream for (a) a marketing ploy (b) an oversized stuffed animal that moves (c) a goodwill ambassodor for the university (d) a combination of some of the above.

*(yes, our local college mascot has a name, but does it really matter?)