by Laura Dutton
This is me
I’m 31 years old – Mum to Matthew, aged 9 and we live just outside of Chester – over the border into North Wales. I work full time in the marketing department at MoneySupermarket.com and started blogging at as ‘British Soccer Mom’ in October, 2012 as a commentary to my hours spent standing on the sideline watching my son play football! My life has always revolved around football as I was taken to watch Chester City FC. by my Dad at the age of 9 and have been going ever since! I met Matthew’s Dad on the terraces at Chester and now our son plays for the club’s youth academy which the family is hugely proud of!
Inspiration
Parenting; I have wanted to start a blog for a while now but I was struggling to find a topic that wasn’t simply parent blogging for the sake of it! I wanted to have a useful, worthwhile message to my writing and my inspiration came after seeing the enthusiasm of the country after the London Olympics. I combined my own personal love of sports with my strong belief that children should be leading a healthy, active lifestyle and created my ‘British Soccer Mom’ persona which is a parody of how I see myself and my dedication to watching my son play the game!
Feedback
When I started my blog I wanted to make connections with parents who have children involved in sport so we could swap ideas, tips and advice. I’ve found some great places to hang out, in particular SportsMums.co.uk and through my @britsoccermom Twitter account, I have connected with parents, organisations and individuals who promote and believe in the same issues as me – healthy lifestyles for our children, vital sports funding, positive role models and grassroots football. I’ve had a brilliant response with my articles being re-tweeted and published across the web. My article about ‘Defibrillators on Sports Fields’ was re-tweeted by Fabrice Muamba and I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing ex England player Ray Wilkins, who said he loved my blog!
Three generations.
Glad to be of service
I blog about a whole variety of topics themed around sports. Some have a serious message that I’m keen to promote, like my article on Defibrillators. Some are informative and useful like my article on fundraising and some are humorous like my ‘10 tips on how to be the Perfect Soccer Mom’ – and I always like to throw a some Soccer Mom fashion tips in there too! I’m not a company trying to push a corporate message to make a business, nor am I a personal blogger that rambles on aimlessly! I like to highlight sporting issues that concern children and open them up for discussion on my blog where anyone is welcome to comment.
Solution Solution Solution
Leading an active lifestyle is a habit that needs to be practiced at a very early age and as adults we need to ensure that this activity is enjoyable for our children. How many people do you speak to who shudder when asked about their school PE lessons? Many people recall military style PE teachers and humiliation as they struggled to ‘hop, skip and jump’ in front of the rest of the class. Children should be grouped according to ability as they are in the academic subjects and bought on at their own pace before they make the association between exercise and humiliation. I believe the national curriculum should introduce and hour of constructive, enjoyable exercise every day as it’s become clear that many parents can’t be relied on to encourage an active lifestyle at home with nearly a third of primary school children now considered obese.
The Mission
To encourage parents to take an active approach to their child’s health. As parents it’s our job to open doors for our children in regards finding out what sporting activities are available to them in their local area. If your son or daughter is no good at kicking a ball, they might be brilliant at climbing a rope, balancing on a beam or throwing some great dance moves! Find out what your child enjoys doing and try and hook them up to a club where they’ll enjoy weekly training sessions and reap the benefits from being part of a team. Our children can’t initiate this themselves so we need to be the active ones and push them to realise their potential.
Laura Dutton
If you would like to contact Laura about this article please email