A BUSY MOMS CAUTIONARY TALE: SPORTS MOM EDITION

I had a conversation with a friend the other day, and it got my brain stuck on this topic, so I thought I’d write it out today.

I’ve always had kids who were into sports. From the time my sons were 4 years old (and they just graduated from college), until now with my daughter in her senior year of high school.

A large majority of my friends also have kids in sports. Recently, our coaches have been talking to the players, as well as their parents, about nutrition. The players are running out of fuel for their bodies long before their events have ended. The result has been kids getting quite sick in one way or another during or immediately after their event.

The majority of the issues are coming from a lack of proper nutrition and a lack of hydration.

The coaches are taking it all VERY seriously, and have taken a lot of steps to help remedy this situation.

The conversation with my friend brought up this point (which is the one that stuck with me), as we were discussing how much we appreciated the coaches’ efforts to help the kids and keep them healthy and safe.

I am paraphrasing here: “How did we get to a point where we’re focusing on collegiate-level nutrition for our high school kids?”

I thought it was a legitimate question and completely saw her point.

My daughter had issues going into high school because she wasn’t eating in the mornings (she was sleeping in and skipping breakfast, and we thought she was grabbing breakfast at school), and she only picked at her school lunches because she didn’t like what they were serving. So, essentially through a series of miscommunication and circumstances we found out she was basically living on Doritos and Ramen, and whatever we made for dinner that night.

This led to a MASSIVE overhaul of her nutrition and eating habits.

And it GREATLY helped that every college coach she has spoken to over the last 2 years has told her that their NUMBER 1 priority for kids being recruited is NUTRITION.

That told me this is an issue across the board.

Another issue I mentioned as my friend and I were talking is that we are currently living in an odd time regarding food and society and culture. If you’re a sports parent, you’ll understand what I mean.

There’s a solid chance that you have two working parents, more than one child, may or may not have a family and friend support system, and you’re navigating activities and events MULTIPLE nights per week.

So, you’re probably making several ASSUMPTIONS about your kids’ eating habits, food choices, and nutritional intake.

And I am speaking as a mom who was 100% guilty of doing this, so no shade from me on this topic.

Even though it was a pain in the butt because my kid was old enough to feed herself at this point, we had to dial in and REALLY get her eating habits on lockdown. I hated having to question her every day about what she was eating, how much water she was drinking, and pushing for her to eat specific things when she was slacking off (3 scrambled eggs instead of 2 with breakfast; yogurt parfait after school; or switching over to protein pasta).

But it was necessary at the time to help her re-structure her eating habits and to help her understand that she wasn’t giving her body enough fuel to last through softball games and practices, cross country practices and meets, and basketball practices, training, and scrimmages ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

And as I have mentioned before, we live in a time where grabbing quick, convenient foods is much easier than cooking at home. Again, going back to my previous comments, we are in an era where busy is simply the way things are. Practices, games, travel, training, more practices….it’s completely understandable that homecooked meals made from whole foods might be less frequent than grabbing fast food because you’re simply trying to get your kids fed. And you’re exhausted from all the life things.

So, after the conversation with my friend, we came to a few conclusions.

First, yes, the time we live in is not geared toward health, nutrition, and wellness, and as busy moms it’s an extra thing we have to be concerned about for our children (and ourselves). So, for sports moms it might look like kids getting extra rest, saying no to extra commitments to give everyone some downtime, or figuring out ways to make nutritious foods more accessible for your kids throughout the day.

Second, there’s the dreaded PICKY EATER situation. Been there, done that. In our experience, the best we could do at that point in life was FEED THEM WHAT THEY WOULD EAT. If they’ll drink milk, will they drink a protein shake? If they eat bananas, are there bananas always available?

I also had to accept with my picky eaters that meals were going to look “odd” to anyone looking at it from the outside. A meal for my pickiest, in HIGH SCHOOL, might be garlic bread, plain pasta, half a gallon of milk, and a pear. It looked weird, but he was eating, he was getting nutrients, and he wasn’t passing out on the field.

And third, sometimes a calm, but serious conversation needs to be had as a family (or at least between the parents and the athlete involved) about what’s going on, what needs to happen moving forward, and look at solutions that work for everyone. After one such talk with my daughter (there have been several about nutrition over the last few years), we came to the mutual decision that she is in charge of her breakfast and it has to meet her nutrient requirements. Someone in the family (me, her stepdad, or her grandma) make sure SOMETHING is available for lunch, whether it’s money for a local café, a prepped meal from the night before, something she can quickly heat in the microwave or air-fryer, or her grandma makes her lunch. She handles her afterschool snack. Dinner is whatever we’re doing that night. And regular check-ins are involved in this process.

So, while my friend and I weren’t able to solve all the world’s problems in one day, we did decide that for busy sports moms, staying aware of your children’s nutrition and eating habits (while annoying at times and an absolute pain in the butt) is a necessary part of the sports life. And in the long run, it can make a huge difference in your child’s mood, their attitude, their physical and mental health, and in their ability to play their sport the best they can.