The True Meaning of Coach's Widow

Let me first explain the reason and meaning behind why I am writing this blog. I am what people call a "Coach's Widow." Please don't confuse this with a real widow!!!! I do not want that to be a confusion, although I am sure it will happen at some point. I stumbled upon this term a few years ago when I was sitting around a table with some girlfriends. I began to tell them that my husband was getting ready to graduate from college as a teacher, and that he was really excited to go into coaching. (I will tell you more about the reasons he went into coaching later!) I had believed we were going to have the good life. Since I am a speech pathologist (aka speech therapist), and work in the schools, I believed that my husband working in the schools would be awesome! We would both have holidays, summers off, and be off work by 4 every day during the school year. As I was telling my friends about his soon to be graduation, one of them said, "Oh, you will be a fellow Coach's Widow!" I had never in my life heard this term, and was actually kind of offended by the fact that she would call it that. "A coach's widow?" I questioned. What are you talking about. She laughed and looked at me as if I was a pitiful child. Little did I know that this is a very common term. "You don't have any idea what being a coach entails do you?" she asked. I had played sports in high school, well when I say sports, I mean cheerleading, and dance team, and didn't ever really think about the hours that the coaches put in. I looked at my friend and replied, "No, not really."  I had no idea what was coming. Most people don't even fathom working the kinds of hours that coaches do. Yes, coaches work hard, but many times the hardest job of all (in my opinion) is being the coach's wife or the "coach's widow" as we now understand it to be.  I have now officially been a coach's widow for 2.5 years. I am a mother of 3, work full time, and am beginning to feel like it is my job to spread the word about how crazy, fun, hectic, lonely, tiring, exciting, and entertaining life can be when you are in this role. Although I am sure I will talk about coaching a lot, really, this blog is what I decided to do to document the crazy ride I call everyday life.