Recently Ellen Hagan of ESPNW wrote a beautiful essay about how she introduces her daughters to the women of the WNBA. She discussed how her daughters were not born to a particularly athletic family and that she wanted to make sure they had powerful, athletic heroes to look up to as they grow.

“It makes me want to search role models for them, makes me hungry to see how other women demonstrate their power and skill to the world. We talk about what it means to have a healthy body, what it means to feed ourselves and be active. We study what it means to be an athlete and realize we all want to be as fierce as the women in the WNBA,” she said. She listed all of the “superheroes” she and her daughters researched, including the Seattle Storm’s own Sue Bird, and how she and her children learn about everything from training camp to gold medals and everything in between.

On this Mother’s Day, what better way to celebrate is there than sharing your love of the WNBA with your children? As important as it is to share this love with daughters to inspire them and help them see what a girl can do when she grows up into a woman, it is also important to create lifelong fans out of our sons. This may be the 20^th anniversary of the WNBA but it is still far from being a household sport found in so many households, like the NBA is, and that starts at home with our children, much like everything else in the world does.

Take your kids out to enjoy a game of hoops today if you can. Show them your favorite WNBA player. Talk about Breanna Stewart’s journey to the Storm, Sue Bird’s amazing history, Jewell Loyd’s amazing Rookie of the Year season and how she currently works as the brave face of dyslexia in athletics. Discuss how much harder it is for women in the WNBA from the hurdles they jump to the pay discrepancies as well as solutions to these issues, which could be implemented as soon as our childrens’ lifetime. Above all, share your enthusiasm. Children respond best to things we are excited about. Teach your children about meeting their goal and fulfilling their dreams while you talk about what it means to be an athlete while you celebrate your holiday.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia