Some parenting decisions are easy

As seen in the March 1, 2023, Bluffton News-Banner.

Every decision you make as a parent isn’t life or death. And the outcome of every decision may not have longterm effects on your child. But some decisions, you hope, steer him in the right direction, make a difference and stick with your kid for years to come. 

And sometimes, it can be as simple as deciding to dress your kid in crimson, teaching him the Indiana University fight song and related chants, and hoping that he sticks to the Light Side.

If you are a longtime reader of this page, you’ll likely recall my love of women’s college basketball. For years I’ve been saying I want to catch an IU women’s game in Assembly Hall. 

On a whim, I decided to make it happen. And I was able to introduce my son to collegiate basketball at the same time.

My mom and I took my 3.5-year-old son to an Indiana women’s basketball in late January. It was a mid-afternoon Sunday game against Rutgers and it was an easy win, which made the six-hour round-trip much more bearable. Plus we beat the crowd before tip off and were able to enjoy some delicious Mother Bear’s pizza, a Bloomington favorite.

My son has chanted “I-U” since he could talk — I take full credit for that — and he has attended many local basketball games this winter so I wasn’t worried he wouldn’t like it. Women’s tickets are very affordable and are general admission, so you can sit where you’d like. We picked an aisle seat far enough from the band and the students so it wouldn’t be too loud. Even then, halfway up the main section was about the closest we could get about 15 minutes after the doors opened. The Hoosiers are one of the top teams in the country and there was a late-season push to “pack the Hall” for home games. The last home game against Purdue sold out for the first time in program history. It’s a good time to be an IU women’s basketball fan (like there is a bad time).

Together we enjoyed all the traditions, from the numerous live performances of the school song by the band and the Martha the Mop Lady video to the flag show dubbed “the greatest timeout in college basketball” and the team singing IU’s alma mater after the win. 

Something new for me was downloading the IU Hoosiers app on my phone, which synced in the building to perform a light show with my phone’s flashlight during player introductions. Seeing all the phones flash was so cool. My kid thought so too.

As a former student season ticket holder, I’ve attended numerous games in Assembly Hall but this was a special day. I highly doubt it will be my son’s last game in Bloomington; and one day he’ll have to take in his first football game at Memorial Stadium.

Introducing my kid to all the things I love gives me hope that we can share in the memories for a lifetime. And raising him to cheer on the Hoosiers is a great start.