Lily In The Dugout

All of a sudden, I found myself thinking about sociology when my softball coach brought her 3 year old daughter Lily to my team's tournament in Indiana. Lily has come to many of our tournaments over the past year and I have been able to watch the process of her being socialized.

This morning, Lily brought her new coloring book to our game and sat in the dugout coloring the whole time.  She was able to sit quietly and do her own thing without much help from her mom or any of the girls on the team.  She need to be taken to the bathroom once.  Last year, everyone on the team would have to help keep an eye on Lily during games to make sure she didn't run out of the dugout onto the field or wander off and get lost in the park.  Lily has been socialized to sit in the dugout during games and not run away and also to "hold it" until she gets to a bathroom.

Lily's agents of socialization are her parents, specifically her mom during softball games, the girls on my team, other parents on the team who sometimes keep an eye on her when she gets to be a distraction in the dugout, and the toys and games she brings with her to our games. According to George Herbert Mead, Lily's significant others right now are her parents and her generalized others are the girls on our team because she has a very close bond to her mom and dad but my team is just a random group of people that influences her.