Here’s to all the mothers who’ve endured sports they don’t enjoy (or fully understand),
hard seats and dirty cleats,
frozen hands and numbed cheeks,
aches and pains and grassy stains,
just to be with a son or daughter in the arena of competition.
Mothers: they see life through biased eyes.
Jocelyn is a mom of two sons. She never cared too much for sports before she had boys and then she couldn’t care enough as they grew into athletes.
She learned to cheer for CJFL/CIS/NHL/NCAA/CFL/MLB teams that some other mothers’ sons played for, only because they were her son’s favourite teams.
Long after they left home she was still cheering.
Mother’s Day Fights
It was a Mother’s Day Sunday night; the third game of the 2013 Montreal-Ottawa playoff series had just ended. The players were leaving the ice after a lopsided score and over 100 minutes in penalties in a fight-filled affair.
Jocelyn watched most of the ugliness of the third period and now listened as the Senator fans serenaded her Canadians’ team in defeat.
Her emotion-filled comment was, “Everyone of them is some mother’s son!”
Hey, That Guy You’re Calling An #!?*## Is My Son!
Jocelyn survived countless hours in outdoor stadiums, enduring rain, wind, slush and snow as she watched her sons play football. She logged thousands of miles of travel by car to be onsite when her boys competed. Nothing annoys her more than when opposing fans taunt her boys’ teams.
She’s listened to total strangers call out her offspring in terms usually reserved for naval yards. There have been times when friends have had to corral her to keep her away from the overly verbose fans of opposing teams.
Then there are the referees. The officials in black and white stripes have been left black and blue from the verbal strips taken off of them during a game. Hell hath no fury like a player’s mum who has been burned by a ref’s bad call. (And aren’t all ref’s calls, bad?)
Make It An Early Mother’s Day
Don’t wait until Mother’s Day to make your mother’s day. Be a good sport.
Call her.
Text her.
Visit her.
Buy her some flowers.
Give her a hug.
Buy her a favorite drink (London Fog?)
Write her a note and tell her “thanks” for all the times she endured more than her fair share of inclement weather, boorish fans and visually impaired referees.
What are you waiting for?
APPLICATION: What is your favorite sports memory about your own mother or the mother of your children? Please leave a comment below.
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Thanks for the reminder about how amazing moms are! Unfortunately, sometimes it takes us kids until we are all grown up to recognize everything our moms have done for us.
I recently learned how much it means to my mom when I show her I still need her. I pray we can instill the respect and love for mothers and grandmothers (and all our elders) in this new generation-but it starts with us!
Mums ARE amazing aren’t they? 84 years of my own mum’s life and influence were never treasured enough. Thanks for commenting, Suzanne.
So true. Mums ARE amazing aren’t they? 84 years of my own mum’s life and influence were never treasured enough. Thanks for commenting, Suzanne.
My mom was a huge Edmonton Eskimos fan. She always had stories for us of past players and Grey Cup games. Going to a game with her was always an experience to remember. She always wanted to gather the family to go together. She was not shy about cheering for her team. Everyone around her knew who that was. She was a very passinate fan of her Eskimos. It was always a lot of fun together as a family.
Great childhood memories. My mom was not a sports spectator. She enjoyed playing volleyball but attended only one sporting event in her life – she watched me play high school football once.
As a mother, it’s not easy to quietly endure the politics behind sports and to leave your child to learn their own lessons. That’s even worse than the time and expense, the uncomfortable weather and inconvenience. Then as they get older and into higher levels of sport in the public eye and with social media, it is even more difficult. The best tools are prayer, patience and trust that their foundations have been built firmly under your few brief years of parenting. But wouldn’t trade my days of mothering my two children with all their activities and various sports for anything. ❤️❤️
Thank you Wendy. I wonder if the future holds a moment of us connecting at the next Winter Olympics to watch Melissa go for gold.