I have been reading a lot of articles and talking to a lot of parents, whose kids play in competitive youth sports. I can see both sides, where the older the kids get, the more competitive it becomes and some kids do not like the sport anymore and it is not fun for that child that and some thrive in it. I have also seen where the fun is being sucked out due to the parents.
I have two kids – one thrives and does well in Youth competitive Sports and the other ones just likes to swim and be part of a team. She is not the fastest but tries and loves cheering her teammates on.
My son on the other hand is a different story. He plays competitive youth full contact football, park and rec basketball and baseball. He started baseball at a very early age and is okay but not the best. He started in flag football in the 2nd grade and it was pretty good for a few years but he got bored and I could see him getting bored. So in the 5th grade, we brought down and signed him up for full contact football. The first year, was really hard. The practice schedule and games are no joke. It is a FULL family commitment. Noah did not know what he was doing but tried. He only got his minimum plays for the first few games and weeks but worked hard and listened to his coaches. We (his parents) also told him that he better respect his coaches and teammates or football would be over since it was a commitment for us also. He listened and really did work hard.
My husband and I would trade off going to the practices and for games for all sports both of us go to support him. At the games across all the sports – I can see how some of the parents are sometimes more competitive than the players, but I have also seen the coaches not listening to the team. For both of these – I can see the kids not liking these sports anymore. We have always told our son that if a sport ever is not fun anymore and he does not want to play it anymore to let us know and we can talk about it as a family. Well this has NEVER happened… it has only gotten worse and this year he added basketball.
At my son’s age – all the boys are very competitive and all they want to do is win at any cost. I have witnessed parents yelling at their kids when they strike out at baseball or if they miss a football pass to them. Am I that type of parents – I would like to think I am not since yes I want my kid’s team to win but I also believe that kids need to learn how to lose and fail. What are your thoughts?
Mom of Teens Talks Sports 