Chronicles of This Mama

Unpopular opinion – I love being a sports mom. I absolutely love watching my kids practice and struggle to see the end result of them overcoming challenges. I love to see their minds work out problems. I enjoy watching them in the TN heat work hard. Hubs and I have had this talk so many times. We don’t do sports because we want them to be the best. We do sports because of the important lessons learned through doing sports.

Lessons in Athletics

Being on a team kids learn to lose and win as a team. This is something I have said thousands of times. It isn’t one single person. Everyone contributes to the end result.

Having to work for playing time. Having to put in the effort and do the work to earn a spot during the game teaches kids so many things. Sometimes you aren’t the best person for the job and you have to own that. On the flip side the work you put in is what you get out, sometimes you can shake things up and earn that game time position just by showing up and doing the work to get better, to hone your skills, to fix that mistake.

Life is hard. I think sports help teach kids that the work you put in when people aren’t watching (not game time) is what really counts. You keep grinding, correcting, pushing through and forward and you get to overcome obstacles. If kids aren’t faced with adversity and challenges as kids then how will they handle them as adults? It isn’t about playing time. It’s about learning to solve problems. Learning to communicate effectively with others for a collective outcome. It’s about cheering on those playing after you’ve struck out and are in your head. It’s about learning to refocus and master the art of letting things go. You won’t always have things go your way. A lot of life is mental and a lot of winning a game is mentality. How you handle yourself when you’re down to turn things around.

No Time for Fun

I met with a friend a few days ago to drop our girls at dance (little did we know they were closed. Smh. It’s life) and we joked that we could get together in about a month. It’s not that we don’t want to spend time and grab a coffee or hang out and chat. It’s that we are both in the busiest season of our lives and it’s not even our busy. It’s busy making sure our kids get to experience life. Making sure they don’t miss practice or training camp. Ensuring that they get to jump from one sport to the next. You’ve seen the memes “I can’t. My kid has practice. A game. Or something”. It’s just a season. It’s a season when we are trying to teach our kids these valuable life skills that will help them to develop into strong centered adults. People in the world we can and will be so proud of as they grow.

I’ve said it in the past but I get more joy over watching my kids navigate the hard stuff and work out those skills than I ever will watching them win. If you’re a real sports parent it’s not about winning. It’s about watching them overcome those struggles. Watching their faces light up when it finally clicks. When they finally figure out how to smash the ball over the infield. When they see themselves do the hard stunt or the cartwheel for the first time. It’s about so much more than winning.

No Regrets

If you’re in the fence about joining because of the massive time commitment – know that from my perspective it’s worth all the shifts, all the missed coffee dates, all the juggling, dinner in the car on the way to practice, concession stand dinners, late nights, it’s all worth it – To see them succeed is the best thing in the world.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this rant – now I’ve got to go get my kids to camp *wink*

Until next time – cheers.