A Letter to My Fellow Teammates Without Children

April 2016 Scrimmage

My Personal Cheering Section

This post was inspired by episode 75 of one of many podcasts that I listen to: Power Through the 4th whistle. The episode is titled "Pregnancy, Returning to Derby, and Finding Balance in Life." While I know my team will probably know all of these without even me saying it, I thought it may be helpful for me to process these thoughts and help out any other fellow derby players who are going through this phase of life in their derby journey. 

Dear Hearts,
First of all, I want to thank ya'll for the continued encouragement that you have given me throughout my derby career. This even goes way back to my rec days and continues up to the day when you all believed in me enough to invite me to join the team.

It took awhile for me to actually decide to try out for a home team. You don't know this about me yet, but when commit to things, I want to be able to give my best and execute it well. I don't like to do things half-well or simply do well enough. I am going to give you my best.  As the only mom to human children on this team, I just want to offer you some perspective.

1. I like you. I really do, and I want to hang out with you, but outside of practices, you are going to have put up with hanging out in short spurts of time with me (It's quality, not quantity, right?). Here's why: My three kids are involved in various activities and they need a chauffeur; Steve, my husband plays hockey (and I want him to pursue it as well); and on top of it all, at $15+/hour, childcare is expensive.  (So next time you go watch a movie, be thankful that you don't have to pay $45 on top of tickets and food for that to happen.) So this means I may have to jet out from a team gathering early, or show up to a social event slightly late. Please bear with me, it's a it's just a phase of life that I'm going through.

2. I apologize if I overly share things about my kids. I'm just so darn proud of them! Personally, I think this particular team will understand how deep a parent's love for their kids/pets can go (based on the number of pet pictures that are posted on the chat board) so just know that I know how much we love our animal family members. When my kids are grown and off to college, my phone album will probably return to being filled with pictures of my pets and pictures of my food, but right now is pretty much 95% kids. It's just a phase of life that I'm going through.

3. Being a mom doesn't define who I am. I may generally be a more nurturing in nature, but I'm more than just mom. For example, I'm super creative. While I wouldn't give up my adorable children, just know that I'm a little envious about the freedom that you have. For me, Derby is a fun outlet from my almost 24 hour role as a mom and I thank you for this amazing community where I can express who I am without being judged. Mothering, while I love it, but I need a break from it time to time. The motherhood journey can be crazy, but again, it's just currently the phase of life that I'm going through.

We don't have any family in town, but I feel like my kids are fortunate because they just gained a whole new family through derby. I'm excited for you all to get to know them and for them to get to know you.

Glitter Done!
Miso