5 Ways Being a Coach’s Wife has Made Me a Better Mom

When you marry a coach, you’re not just becoming someone’s wife - you’re becoming a coach’s wife. Along with this title comes added responsibility, specific expectations, and additional stresses. During the season, your husband is rarely around, and managing day-to-day life falls on you. While he’s focused on his players, practices, and the weekly games, life keeps moving on for you. There’s school pick-up, organizing dinner, keeping the house clean, managing your job, and everything in between! It’s not easy, but being a coach’s wife has made me a better mom.

How Being a Coach’s Wife has Made Me a Better Mom

1. Appreciate Failure: My husband’s team doesn’t win every week. But after every loss, they regroup, put it behind them, and show their best at practice for the upcoming game. Like my husband and his players, it’s about learning and growing from failure. As a mom, we fail a lot. But with failure comes life lessons that ultimately make us stronger.
2. Power of Encouragement: Just as my husband uses his coaching position to encourage his players, I find that words of encouragement also positively impact our household when used with my toddler. Instead of always focusing on what my child is doing “wrong” or things that he can “change,” I use words of encouragement to change his behavior and praise what he’s doing well. This mindset shift results in a happier mom, a calmer child, and a more peaceful household. You never know how the power of positive words and affirmations can influence and change a child's mindset!
3. Working Together: During football season, it's up to me to keep the household running by implementing routines and schedules. But I realize that this shouldn't all fall on me. As a football team, the players won't be good unless they collectively come together to work toward something bigger and better than their individual roles. Similarly, the burden of the household shouldn't just fall on me. It's okay to delegate age-appropriate tasks to your children, ask extended family for help, or even hire help. It’s important to view your family as one unit working towards a common goal.
4. Believe in Kids: There's so much negativity in our world these days between the news, school bullying, and these past few years. However, kids aren't going to believe in themselves unless there are adults that believe in them. My husband constantly supports, encourages, and believes in the kids he is coaching. Without outwardly expressing this to them, they aren’t going to believe in themselves.  Even though he's only a toddler, I constantly reaffirm to my son that he can do anything he wants!
5. Celebrate the Small Wins: Life is hard, and it's important to celebrate the wins in your life - especially the small wins. My husband recognizes the small successes of his players on a daily basis. Whether it’s making a good tackle or throwing an accurate pass, celebrating these small wins keep the players motivated to continue to do their best. Praising your children and acknowledging small wins in their lives will boost their self-esteem and motivate them daily. After my son managed to stay in bed all night (!), we celebrated with ice cream cones. A bit of positivity goes a lot further than you realize!

Being a coach's wife is hard, but I wouldn't change it for anything else in the world! The lessons I've learned from my husband, his players, and my own experiences continue to make me a better mom, a better wife, and the best person possible to the world around me!