I had forgotten how much fun it is to wrestle with your kids

Years ago when my children were, well, a lot younger, we used to have evening wrestling matches in the living room.

These were very elaborate affairs, you understand. It was generally All Available Kids vs. Daddy in our living room. Every match would begin with a set of introductions in which the kids would cheer loudly for themselves and would boo just as loudly for me. They were brutal.

The matches would last three rounds and would almost invariably go nearly the full distance before the kids managed to pin me. Over the years I ended up winning a handful, just to keep them honest, I guess.

In the days when it was Elissa, Chloe and Jared, they employed a strategy of pummeling me into submission with pillows, then jumping on me repeatedly until they could flip me over and pin me (again, always in the third and final round in a dramatic finish).

After the match would end, sometimes I would just lay there on the floor and they would take turns jumping onto me from the couch. My back cracks just thinking about it.

Later on Melanie was old enough to participate, just about the time that Elissa wasn't as interested anymore.

Then came a period of some years when wrestling didn't happen. I'm not sure why, but it didn't.

Until recently, when Jack and I resurrected it.

Jack is a rapidly growing 9-year-old boy. Like his brother at that age, he grows about two inches every day.

And it turns out he's a lot stronger than I gave him credit for.

I can still toss him around when needed, but man, it's tougher than I thought it would be.

He still uses the pillow-pummeling approach, after which he'll dive on me and pin my shoulders to the floor. I could escape if I wanted to, but it's getting to the point where sometime soon I won't be losing on purpose. That boy is going to rapidly outpace my Old Man Strength.

Anyway, if there's a moral to today's little story, it's never to forget or abandon the fun rituals in your family. I'm glad Big Time Living Room Wrestling is back in the Tennant household, though I can't figure out why it was forgotten in the first place, nor do I think my aging body is going to survive it much longer.

But I still wouldn't trade it for anything.