Donna Sturm, a jewelry designer in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, was watching her 12-year-old daughter play at the Parade Grounds fields south of Prospect Park on Friday. She also said that defining women by the sports their children play  be it soccer or hockey  is not particularly useful.

“It’s kind of short for ‘I’m like you, I’m not elitist, I too drive my kids from place to place,’ ” she said. “So I think Michelle Obama can use it as much as Palin. I think the population is too taken in by that. So you don’t have to go into deeper issues. I’d much rather someone talked about a health care plan or a child care plan.”

At a nearby field, Sarah Weir, 41, the manager of the Brooklyn Patriots Revolution team for 10- and 11-year-old girls, made another comparison between the sports: “In soccer, parents don’t get as worked up. I’ve heard in hockey of parents attacking coaches.”

Cristina O’Brien, 30, who also was watching her daughter Samantha, 10, at the Parade Grounds, said: “I know a hockey mom. She was getting up at 4:30 to take her son to hockey practice. I’ve seen someone who’s taken their kid to Canada for tryouts and games. But I just want her to have fun.”

In Toms River, N.J., the Shelter Cove soccer field was full of soccer parents on Friday evening.

Kim Rinkerman, 32, a health and physical education teacher in Toms River, helps manage the team her 10-year-old son, Tylar, joined after expressing interest in hockey. “We call soccer the poor version of hockey,” she said. “We can’t afford the gear.”

Ms. Rinkerman, a single mother, said she had not decided how she would cast her vote, but she was happy to hear Governor Palin call herself a hockey mom.

“I’m glad she’s open and honest,” she said. “I’m just glad someone is proud of who they are.”

Cynthia Lane, 36, of Beachwood, N.J., a school bus driver, has four children. All of them play soccer, and the youngest two, both boys, play hockey as well.