Team moms are an essential part of the team, even though they’re not playing or coaching. However, many team moms go overboard and become something like a helicopter parent, which is not something that any reasonable parent would want to be.
If you want to avoid hovering and acting like a helicopter parent, there are some things that you need to know. The following tips will help you become a great team mom without the hovering and other annoying things.
Know the Game
The problem with many team moms is that they don’t know the game and that’s somewhat understandable. But there’s no need for you not to know the basics at least, and maybe the terminology used.
Knowing the game will get you respect from your child and other team members and it will also help you support your young athlete properly. However, that doesn’t mean that you should go overboard because children often feel embarrassed if their parents get too invested in the game and overreact to everything they’re doing.
Be All in but Let Others Have Responsibilities as Well
There’s no way for you to be a capable team mom if you don’t commit. You need to go all in and consider your job to be just that – a job.
However, you shouldn’t go too far, or you’ll appear to be a helicopter parent. To avoid that, you should delegate tasks to others. Find people to assist you with certain things like getting snacks, game films, etc.
Additionally, this will help you hover around less, and you’ll also be able to rest a bit and not tire yourself too much.
Be Ready for Injuries and Don’t Freak Out
Injuries happen in sports, and they are a fairly regular occurrence. If it happens to your child, you needn’t worry too much. Try to do your best to help them and don’t freak out. If you do, you will appear hovering, and you won’t be a capable team mom.
Make sure that it’s nothing serious, but do it calmly because doing it otherwise would be a disservice to everyone, both your child and you.
Relax and Enjoy Yourself
The underlying problem with the hovering and helicopter parenting is that the parents who are like that are usually very uptight and worried. There’s no reason to be like that. Everything would be much better if you were to relax and start enjoying the fact that you’re a team mom.
You’re there to help and have specific responsibilities, but you are also there to enjoy yourself. Sport is about fun, and it’s there to connect people as well. The sooner you realize that; the less this hovering thing will be a problem. It will disappear entirely.
With this and all the other tips we gave you, you’ll quickly become the most active team mom which a mom can be, and your child, as well as all the other children on the team, will love you for it.