As I child I never participated in any kind of sports.

Never.

And as I dreamed about my future as a mother, kids who participated in sports wasn’t anywhere in the picture.

As our kids became school age I started to dip my toes into what it meant to be a “sports mom”.

First, it was ballet and tumbling, then it was flag football and eventually, 7 years ago our middle son began to wrestle.

I knew nothing about this insanely complicated sport, and the noise and chaos at our first tournament was completely overwhelming.

Added to the confusion of trying to learn to navigate through TrackWrestling (if you know you know) and figure out when and where each bout was…there I was trying to occupy 4 other children including cranky toddlers and babies for 10 hours.

I almost wept tears of joy when that first wrestling season was finally done.

But then, somewhere around year three, I began to notice a change in not only my children who were participating but in our entire family.

Now as we are deep in the middle of our 7th season with all 5 kids (ages 15-7 three boys and two girls) wrestling, I can say that without a doubt, wrestling had been an enormous blessing to our family.

This weekend as we finished up our second 12 hour day at a local tournament where 4 of our children were wrestling (and one was a referee) I found myself reflecting on all the powerful life lessons we’ve learned from wrestling.

9 Powerful Life Lessons My Family Has Learned From Wrestling

Over the years, wrestling has given so much more to my family than I could have ever expected. This sport has been a blessing to our entire family.

I am so grateful for the powerful lessons our children have learned from participating in this sport, and I hope that when they look back at this time in our lives it is with appreciation and pride.

Check Out the University of Wyoming Wrestling Facility

The University of Wyoming Wrestling facility is fabulous. Here's a look at where our UW wrestlers hang out and train. The facility is located in the basement of the UniWyo Sports Complex.

Code Of The West: Wyoming State Code of Ethics

"The Code of the West" was declared the official state code of Wyoming, and the act was signed into law on March 3rd, 2010. Wyoming is the first state to adopt a code of ethics. The legislation chose ten ethics derived from the book "Cowboy Ethics" by James P. Owen

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