Raising an athlete takes a remarkable amount of dedication—paying club fees, sitting in all kinds of weather to watch us play (or sometimes just to watch us sit on the bench), driving countless miles and hours between practices and games, streaming the games online when they're too far, listening to endless rants about how dumb the coach is and not to mention the emotional investment that comes with being a superfan. You rock.

Parenting an athlete is no easy task, and brings many lessons that may never have been learned otherwise. Here are just a few things every mother of an athlete knows.

1. There is no day quite like Game Day.

Many of us athletes wear our lucky Game Day clothes, post our Game Day pictures on social media, eat (or don’t eat) certain foods, or whatever else it takes to make sure we play our best that night. As our mom, you learn to respect the importance of Game Day.

2. It is a crime to mismatch the brands of your socks.

We know they are both black crew-cut socks, but Adidas and Nike just aren’t the same.

3. Crew socks are cool, no matter how ugly you might think they are.

Yes, we know you think we look like a suburban middle-aged man, but they’re cool. Trust me.

4. Sometimes it will take us players quite a while to emotionally recover from a tough loss.

Love us through it. Feel our pain. It’s not you that we are upset at, it’s the game.

5. After a long tournament, capable athletes turn into giant babies.

After a long day of pushing our bodies to our maximum ability, we’re most likely going to come home, throw all of our stuff on the ground, crash on the couch, beg for food and maybe cry a little bit.

6. No matter how much food you make, we will eat all of it.

And we will still want more.

7. You may never fully understand everything about the sport, but you still have to listen and pretend like you do.

You most definitely have to pretend you agree those referees totally sucked, you understand what a certain play means and you know what all the positions mean (even if you actually only know the one I play). It doesn't really matter if you don't get it, we just need someone to listen to us talk.

8. Athletes can talk about sports 24/7 and not get tired of it.

We also forget you don't feel the same way. Whenever we aren’t playing our sport, we’re checking ESPN for the latest updates on how our favorite college and professional teams are doing, thinking about practice tomorrow or mentally recreating that sick play that we had earlier in the day.

9. It becomes necessary to desensitize yourself to the smell of sweat.

When we come up to you after the game for a hug and then toss you our gross backpack, I'm sorry you have to tough it out. It’s everywhere, and you can’t hide from it.

10. Athletes aren’t dumb meatheads like we are stereotyped to be.

Many athletes are actually very passionate about things like academics, music and art, but many of us have to put that on the back burner if we want to play our sport in college. We’re busier than non-athletes, so we are forced to prioritize.

11. Your child will most likely physically outgrow you.

All that protein powder has to go somewhere. But we both still know that while we may be bigger and stronger, you will always call the shots.

12. Do not tamper with an athlete’s pregame ritual.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to listen to Drake the entire way to the fieldhouse, or if you think it’s stupid to chug a Gatorade before every game, a ritual is a ritual and there is no messing with it.

13. Every player has their own favorite in-between game snacks.

These snacks are very important, so learn quickly what our snacks are to have them readily available. Also, don’t forget to bring extra because you know that what you bring for one player, you have to bring for all of the players.

14. Whether the game is five miles away or 100, you will still go.

Once you get involved in our sports, there is no going back. You will sit in the pouring rain in a random town in the middle of nowhere trying to ignore all of your responsibilities at home, and you wouldn’t change it for a thing.

15. When your child has to get up at 6:00 a.m. for a tournament, that means you do too.

Actually, more like 5:45 a.m., so you can make us breakfast and make sure we’re up on time. Otherwise, you’re going to get blamed when we oversleep, even though it’s not your fault.

16. Post-tournament laundry is quite possibly the most disgusting thing ever.

Just close your eyes, hold your breath and bear with it. As disgusting as it may be, we're still going to need you to have it clean before the next game. You’re also going to have to learn how to get out all types of stains.

17. Even if your child’s team is getting crushed, you have to remain positive.

When everything and everybody in a game brings us down, we will turn to look at you for a supportive smile.

18. Don’t be that parent who coaches their kids from the sideline.

Please. We all know you played back in your glory days. Let the coach do their job.

19. You’re the best fan any player could ever ask for.

This goes out to all of the super moms out there. Your job isn’t easy, and everything you give us athletes doesn’t go unnoticed. Sometimes we don’t show it much as we should, but we wouldn’t be where we are today without you. We owe you the world. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Your Athlete