it's all fun and games until someone has the audacity to have a breakdown
Hi, I'm Jess! *waves* I'll be guest posting this week because one of my in-laws went and offended me (shocking, I know) so I was inspired with a couple thoughts and questions on kids and sports and when are they old enough to start being mean to them.
It's all fun and games until. . . it's not?
I don't have any of my own children but I do have two nieces and two nephews who all participate in public league sports. I played basketball in fifth grade (I was the only one on the team who didn't score a basket all season - how's that for you?) and then was a cheerleader later on, but it seems that the involvement of kids in sports and parents in their kids sports has really escalated since my own days of playing.
But this year, I've gotten my own first hand experience because my sister-in-law coaches her second-grade daughter's public league soccer team. I'll preface this by saying that I love my S-I-L, and I think she's a good parent (once again, I don't have any, who am I to judge?). But she started out our conversation with "These kids" and then proceeded to complain about how they all think it's too hot all the time, and they wall want water breaks all the time, and they all want to play this position and that position and they don't want to listen and that they cry.
Which is all to be expected, I would think. I'm sure not all these girls even want to be playing. But the kicker here is what she said after she told me all that: "So, now, to get them to stop crying, when they do I make them run."
Now, maybe I'm just a bleeding heart but I think that sounds a little Nazi-like. These are second graders. Are we going to punish them for having emotions? Furthermore, is running, which is a sport in itself, something we really want to teach our kids is a punishment (but I like to run, so that's a different soapbox for a different day). Select soccer starts in third grade here, which is soccer you have to try out for, and be disciplined about (my nephew plays it - they have two-a-days for these third graders).
I guess I understand that you don't want them to have soft shells or fall down crying on the field when something doesn't go there way, but still, aren't there better ways?
Then, a few days passed and my S-I-L calls and tells me that the other coach made her daughter run for crying (a rule my S-I-L instated) so she made his daughter run that practice for something completely random.
So now not only are we punishing the second graders, we are taking out our vendettas on them?
I guess my question is just when do sports stop being fun, and start being all about endurance and discipline and winning? I suppose to a certain extent they're always about all those things, but isn't there some kind of cut off point? An age of accountability that kids don't enter in until they can tie their shoes?
Maybe there's just a certain type of parent who should coach and a certain type who shouldn't? A certain type of child that should play a certain type of a sport (but shouldn't everyone be granted equal opportunities)?
Go ahead and shake your head at me and tell me "you'll understand when you're a parent" if that's the case here.
It's all fun and games until. . . it's not?
I don't have any of my own children but I do have two nieces and two nephews who all participate in public league sports. I played basketball in fifth grade (I was the only one on the team who didn't score a basket all season - how's that for you?) and then was a cheerleader later on, but it seems that the involvement of kids in sports and parents in their kids sports has really escalated since my own days of playing.
But this year, I've gotten my own first hand experience because my sister-in-law coaches her second-grade daughter's public league soccer team. I'll preface this by saying that I love my S-I-L, and I think she's a good parent (once again, I don't have any, who am I to judge?). But she started out our conversation with "These kids" and then proceeded to complain about how they all think it's too hot all the time, and they wall want water breaks all the time, and they all want to play this position and that position and they don't want to listen and that they cry.
Which is all to be expected, I would think. I'm sure not all these girls even want to be playing. But the kicker here is what she said after she told me all that: "So, now, to get them to stop crying, when they do I make them run."
Now, maybe I'm just a bleeding heart but I think that sounds a little Nazi-like. These are second graders. Are we going to punish them for having emotions? Furthermore, is running, which is a sport in itself, something we really want to teach our kids is a punishment (but I like to run, so that's a different soapbox for a different day). Select soccer starts in third grade here, which is soccer you have to try out for, and be disciplined about (my nephew plays it - they have two-a-days for these third graders).
I guess I understand that you don't want them to have soft shells or fall down crying on the field when something doesn't go there way, but still, aren't there better ways?
Then, a few days passed and my S-I-L calls and tells me that the other coach made her daughter run for crying (a rule my S-I-L instated) so she made his daughter run that practice for something completely random.
So now not only are we punishing the second graders, we are taking out our vendettas on them?
I guess my question is just when do sports stop being fun, and start being all about endurance and discipline and winning? I suppose to a certain extent they're always about all those things, but isn't there some kind of cut off point? An age of accountability that kids don't enter in until they can tie their shoes?
Maybe there's just a certain type of parent who should coach and a certain type who shouldn't? A certain type of child that should play a certain type of a sport (but shouldn't everyone be granted equal opportunities)?
Go ahead and shake your head at me and tell me "you'll understand when you're a parent" if that's the case here.