I miss football season. There's no hiding it. Going from seeing the same group of kids and families several times a week, every single week, from the end of July to November to no longer seeing most of them at all is tough. The bond that is formed among everyone involved with the team is unlike any other. You become more than a team; you become family.

So it's no surprise that many of us currently find ourselves suffering from what I like to call Football Withdrawal Syndrome. 

RELATED CONTENT: An open letter from a football mom

Football Withdrawal Syndrome — a set of symptoms that occur in a football mom at the end of the season; usually in October or November. Symptoms completely dissolve at the start of the next season; usually in late July or early August.

If you have at least five of the 10 symptoms listed below, than you, mama, may be suffering from FWS, too.

• 1. Wearing your football spirit wear to basketball games (or whatever other sport your child is currently participating in).
• 2. The inability to pack your cowbell away.
• 3. Reminiscing through the 579 football photos on your iPhone ... several times a day.
• 4. Logging into TeamSnap, even though you know there is nothing new for you to view.
• 5. Still buying your oranges and Gatorades in bulk.
• 6. Filling your "team mom" board on Pinterest with ideas and inspiration for next season.
• 7. Finding turf (turds) in your house and feeling like tearing up, instead of screaming.
• 8. Eating dinner at 6 p.m. like a normal family.
• 9. Playing a team in your child's current sport that happens to be from the same area of a team that beat you during football season, and thinking how much you hate them.
• 10. Counting down the months, days, hours, and seconds until next season.

Don't worry mamas, FWS doesn't last forever!

RELATED CONTENT: 10 signs you're probably a football mom

Vanessa Mejia is the mother of three football-playing boys, ages 14, 12 and 9, and lives in northern Virginia. Her boys also play basketball, soccer and track and field. Her husband coaches football in the Fairfax County Youth Football League. She shares Team Mom ideas, tips and tricks along with other facets of her family’s life away from the football field. Read more of her work at https://confessionsofasportsmama.blogspot.com