Family Violence becomes an Art Form ;)

Last night I went to my first wrestling match. It was like combat ballet. All I can say is, "Wow."

For several years my eldest daughters were telling me to get their brothers into wrestling. I was thinking of guys roughhousing on a mat and said no way. Last night my eldest at home was given extra credit points for bringing a family member to a tournament as one of her teachers is a coach. I dropped them off and went to class. I knew they'd not be out for a while so I went to the school when I got out and paid to go in. My daughter was up in the stands. Now initially I was going to ask them if they could leave early, but the band was playing a catchy tune and I decided to stay.

First, I found myself cheering for the guy on the bottom, just hoping he'd get back on top. (Isn't that humiliating to lose?) Well, one of Peaches friends, The Vivacious Redhead said, "Don't cheer for them! We're winning! That's bad if their guy gets on top!" I guess the guy who was winning was in her first hour class and was a sweetheart so I started yelling for whomever they told me to yell for. I was glad for the other school-- they got two wins. It would have been humiliating to have left with no wins and the score was like 70-6. They canceled the JV tournament which made me sad as I'd have stayed for it. (If you have ever been on a JV team, you know what I am talking about. It is devastating to watch nine tenths of the crowd leave when Varsity gets over. For me, seeing two equally matched teams of athletes face off is great and I don't care WHAT level they are.)

My son who went with his big sister found some friends and was playing Pokemon cards and hanging out. Peaches thought he didn't like it since he wanted to play, but I asked if he wanted to wrestle and he looked at his sister and hugged her-- he'd asked her to work on me so he could wrestle. It was important that he saw it and then saw his friends who wrestle and they just did their thing.

In the car, I drove home then had to run to the store. I got the three middle boys in the car and looked in my rear view mirror to see LEGS in the air. I pulled over, "WTF are you idiots doing?" In the brief time I ran inside to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth, my one son had taught his other brothers some moves and they were practicing. (They kept trying to wrestle in the supermarket aisles. What have I created?) New rule in the Crumpetmobile: both butt cheeks have to be on the car seat while Mom is driving!

I'm excited. I always thought my boys would either cripple of kill each other, but with wrestling, they can do it in a controlled, gentlemanly manner. . . I am really excited to get them doing this and I regret that I waited so long. They won't really kill each other-- although that's only because I put an end to their roughhousing before it gets out of hand.