Raising Super Fans :: Importance of Passed Down Traditions

When you become a parent, you get to make all sorts of cool decisions for your kiddos. At least while they’re little. Like what they will eat, how they will dress, what their Faith will be. I’m not gonna lie though, one of my most favorite things about becoming a parent was passing down my love of sports teams and getting to raise a SUPER FAN (times 5)!

ndnation

You get to dress them up on game days, teach them fight songs and mottos and do fun things like make them team colored pancakes on gameday! Starting game day off with a fun breakfast, gets them all excited. Or if sports teams aren’t your thing, can help you participate in the excitement of it all!

Our family has three teams that we are CRAZY about!  Our allegiance goes to Notre Dame, Wichita State University and the Kansas City Chiefs.  I remember being a little myself and sitting on my dads lap watching Joe Montana play for the Irish. It was my first memory of loving a team.  Obviously, I was a tad too young to know the ins and outs of the game, but I loved that he loved it and that it was something I could do with him.

When I was 5, I went to my first Chiefs game at Arrowhead stadium. I LOVED the game by then and the stadium food was such an added bonus. My love for sports grew from not participating but from acting like I was participating. We would throw jargon around like, “we have a big game today” when WE had actually nothing to do with the game. Was I suiting up to run out of the same stadium as Rudy? NO! Was I skipping the tailgate at Arrowhead because of pregame? No!  So why was I such a die hard fan… because I was raised that way. AND I LOVED IT!

To have a team that you can get behind and be passionate about is such a fun experience for kids.  So many life lessons can be learned in so many layers beyond, “we root for WSU, go us.” My folks have had season tickets to the Chiefs since I was 5! Every year since then, I have made the trek to KC, section 129, row 32.  One of my most favorite memories as a teenager was my dad teaching me to drive….down the turnpike….on the way to Arrowhead Stadium…way too fast and with a caravan of fellow Chief cars. So much trust and communication was built in that one on one experience, a time when a positive male figure is so crucial. Did it happen at the game? No. Sometimes, it’s what happens outside of the game, that you treasure the most.

superfanchiefs

And I love passing all of that on to my kiddos.  Everyday when they leave the house, they hit the “PLAY LIKE A CHAMPION TODAY” sign.  This bigger sign is in the tunnel from the Notre Dame locker room and the players hit it everytime they make their way to the field, as a reminder to play like a champion. Our is on our way out of the garage, and just the right height that even the two year old can hit it too. Do they play in games everyday? No, but everyday is a good day to give it your all. AND the first thing they see when we turn off the winding road to our house is our Shocker windmill, because the Shockers are our home team, and they are home when they see that windmill.

Superfanscomingandgoing

What happens though, when its not all fun and games?  I’ll never forget 2012, Notre Dame went undefeated and to the national championship game. We lost. And my oldest was DEVESTATED. I was not prepared for his sadness. Up until then, all our teams were good, but not “the best”.  Another blow came quickly after that when our beloved SHOCKERS made it to the Final Four.  While everyone else was upset with the loss, my Cohen was upset with ME for raising him to “love teams that almost made it.”  Since then, we have had many converstations about how blessed we are to cheer for our teams! To cheer in general. I always remind all of them that losing a game is a first world problem. That there are kids out in the world that will never know what a football is. They will never go to a game in a stadium. They work sun up to sun down to survive or help provide for their family. Making it to big games is such an accomplishment! Losing a game is not an actual problem in the BIG scheme of things.  Losing and winning can teach about compassion and humility, it’s all about how we RAISE them with this love for certain teams. Raise them up to be classy fans, gracious fans, humble fans, thankful fans.

So was passing on my love for these teams not the best thing for him? Absolutely not!! The struggle to cheer on our teams is real, passion brings out a spectrum of emotions, but ones that everyone should experience, even kiddos.  They are not always winning seasons and you have to take the bad with the good.  But the good is real, the lessons to be learned are real and the memories made, priceless.

WSU2015

 

Who do YOUR little Super Fans cheer for?

Jeny Ayres
Jeny is a baker, a shaker, and a baby maker. She is crazy about her college sweetheart, C, and their little tribe of 5 kiddos (ages 10-2). Although born and raised a "city girl" in the ICT, falling for a country boy has recently relocated Jeny to life in a farmhouse, with cows, chickens, & the freedom to get the paper in her pjs with no chance of anyone else seeing her. When she is not singing insanely loud in the car on her way to and from 100 different places with her tribe, you can find her baking for Brown Sugar Bakery {https://www.facebook.com/brownsugarbakeryks} and trying to keep up with her happy chaos, which she blogs about over at Little Wonders {http://littlewonders-ayres.blogspot.com}. She loves Jesus, dance parties, and her 6 roommates.

1 COMMENT

  1. I completely agree with this! We love our Jayhawks and Royals and the time we have spent watching games at home and in person have made us closer as a family. And it makes it even sweeter when they win!

Comments are closed.