Football has taught my son to develop leadership skills, to appreciate the importance of teamwork, to listen, to observe, and to maintain balance and control between feelings and actions.
Football is part of our life.
Personally, I was never involved in any sports when growing up. I was always more attracted to poetry, drawing, and even some music. When I started dating my husband, I started learning more about football. Football became part of our life. We would go to the UTEP home games and have cute dates at his apartment during football Sundays.
Years went by, and our son developed an interest in football at six years old which seemed scary at the time. Many people were concerned about enrolling him in youth tackle football as it was “a dangerous sport.” But with his introverted personality, we felt it was a good fit to help him find motivation for self-defense and discipline. We have been in the youth football life for five years now. Year by year, we have embraced it more.
The Benefits of Football
Football has taught my son so many important skills. Ethics, sportsmanship, and respect are valuable things to learn which nowadays can be hard for our kids to learn anywhere.
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As a parent, I have learned to trust, to support, and to engage. I have learned to trust that the coaches are correctly teaching my son the structure of the game. I support my son in all his games. Whether that means going to an 8:00 a.m. game or having to drive 10 hours to an out-of-town game. I engage in his dreams of a football career and ensure he’s following all the paths to allow him to play.
Team = Family
This season we have joined a new team which has helped us to embrace our passion for the sport even more. The sense of team has become a sense of a family. The new team warmly welcomed us as family. A team in which you see everyone supporting each and every player and their families. Having this new football family gave our own family the confidence to love and enjoy football more.
The experience of a true team family opened my eyes to how important it is to enjoy the good and the bad about the sport. It allowed me to remove the fear of being judged because my son is a football player. It led me to become open to new relationships with people who share similar experiences as mine.
All sports can be dangerous, and they all require determination, sacrifice, and dedication. However, football is always seen as the sport with a short future or the sport that only brings you sunburns and fights. For me, for our family, football is the sport that brought our family together. Football is helping my son become a responsible young man. This sport has opened doors to having more people in our lives.
Football Mom Life
Enjoy going to the games, and don’t forget the mosquito spray and to sign up for snacks. Take your cowbell and wear your gear with pride. The kids have a dream, a passion, and you have to be their number one cheerleader. Look on the bright side and embrace the family you got when you joined the team. One day your child will be grown and may be a football coach or an NFL star and you will be able to look back and remember you were that mom who cheered them on!
The opinions expressed in this post are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of El Paso Mom, its executive team, other contributors to the site, its sponsors or partners, or any organizations the aforementioned might be affiliated with.
