Taking kids sports too seriously
Here's Liz Atwood with this week's Tween Tuesday:
Call me naïve, but I had no idea that some parents take recreational sports so seriously. This week my 10-year-old had his first basketball practice and I was surprised when the coach took the parents aside and read us the rules. He reminded us to be good sports and not yell at the children or the coaches. And he said under no circumstances should we reward our sons with gifts for the number of shots they make.
Do parents really do that? Let me be clear, we are talking about recreational basketball. There are no tryouts and every kid plays. I signed my son up so he would get some exercise during the winter. It never occurred to me to reward him for number of shots he makes.
Every time my kids play sports, they can count on hearing me remind them about trying to do their best, supporting their teammates and sticking with the sport through the season. But it seems parents need their own reminders about how to be good sports.
Have you seen parents who needed sportsmanship lessons in the rec leagues?
Comments
Yup. I wrote a whole blog post about it here:
http://wendywillard.com/blog/2011/11/05/winning-and-losing/
Posted by: Wendy | December 6, 2011 7:06 AM
A girl I work with was talking to me about her girls sports teams one day, and she showed me her secret gesture she uses to tell her girls to elbow the opposing team if they're getting in the way, or you know, playing defense. And then they go out for ice cream for scoring and for "not letting anyone push them around". People are insanely retarded about kid sports.
Posted by: k8 | December 8, 2011 9:13 AM