Sometime in late 2024 my kids and I were trying to find something to watch for the last little bit before bedtime. Scrolling through Netflix, we weren’t finding anything that everyone was excited about. With only about 30 minutes until it was time to start our bedtime routine, we didn’t have a lot of time to keep scrolling. Also, scrolling through Netflix doesn’t make anyone happy especially not 5 little kiddos.
Pretty soon we had all given up on finding something, but a show caught my eye, “WWE: Monday Night Raw”. Growing up, I loved watching professional wrestling. My brother’s and I would pound on each other and go flying off the top rope(the side of the couch) to body slam one another. I thought it might be a little mature for how little my kids were at the time, but we decided to try it. This is what first introduced me to the legendary Jey Uso.
My kids were enthralled with the spectacle of WWE. The high flying acrobatics, the powerful punches and kicks, and of course all of the hype that the wrestlers do when they enter the ring for a match. Jey Uso especially got my kids excited. If you have ever watched WWE and seen an Uso entrance you know how fired up he can get a crowd. As the kids watched and got excited about Jey Uso, waving their hands up and down with him, I couldn’t help but get excited! They loved it, and I had not seen them this excited about something in quite a while.
Since then we have watched many WWE matches. My kids still love it and their favorite wrestler is far and away the Main Event, Jey Uso. We run around and pretend to do his ring entrance. Sometimes in the car I will hear my oldest instructing his four little siblings “Say: 4 Letters, 1 Word, Ugh Ugh YEET!” and they all repeat in unison. It never fails to get them excited and for us to all have wrestling matches with the bean bag as our main “Ring”. Even my girls love to join in on the action. They will ask “Can we watch the fighting show?!”
As I have reflected on this and tried to tie it into the world of parenting, I have found that there are certain things that we can do as Moms and Dads that will at the very least get our kids excited and upbeat. For about a month I marveled at how the WWE superstars could get my kids so pumped up. I thought to myself “Wow, if we could meet them in person, could you imagine how crazy they would go?”. It was then that I realized, we can be this for our kids. I know it is not always this simple, but it is simple to try.
Now I have mentioned that we still watch WWE, and it has yet to fail in getting the kids excited. But I realized that I need to be the one to step up. I need to be the one to get them off the couch and excited. I am by no means the big personality that we see in the WWE, but I can get up on the side of the couch and do Jey Uso’s entrance. I can let my kids beat up on me and body slam me on to the bean bad. Instead of making it to bedtime like we all do somedays, why not get involved with something they like? Since I have started to get to know the wrestlers by name, and start to remember some of their signature moves my life has honestly changed as a father. I am more motivated to do something fun with my kids with something that they love.
I have found that your kids don’t always need some grand thing. It doesn’t have to be the big once a year Disney trip. It doesn’t have to be an expensive present. What I think kids really want is just for you to be there. To engage with them and their interests. This is at least true with my little ones. The minute I put my phone down and we go into wrestling mode, they can’t get enough. It is valuable time for me and I hope that it’s something that they will remember as time goes on. Something as simple as pretending to be Jey Uso for 30 minutes on Monday nights has turned me into a better father.
Something that I feel like is increasingly rare, especially as your kids start to get older is fulfillment as a parent. Feeling like you are doing this crazy parenting right for once. WWE in the Styles’ house brings me a lot of joy and fulfillment right now. What will do that for you and your family? Is there anything that you have found that gets your kids revved up that you can use to connect with them better?
The Styles Forge 
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