As I’ve mentioned, both my children play/played sports growing up. My daughter played softball, field hockey, and ice hockey. My son still plays baseball and ice hockey and golfs as well.
On of the things that still blows my mind is the way some parents act while at these sporting events. I’ve seen crazy that I didn’t think was even possible. Hockey games with 8 year olds where parents are screaming to “hit them” or “kill that kid”. Baseball games where parents are threatening the umpire because they didn’t like a strike call. What is causing this?? I don’t know the answer but let me say this to those parents…..”Get a freaking grip on your life”.
Now those are the most extreme versions of the crazy sports parents. Luckily, most are not like that and they happily just cheer when appropriate and support their child and their teammates.
The more subtle sports parent can also be the ones that constantly reach out to the coaches to gain favor. Or the ones that cannot stop talking to their kids in the car on the way to and from games giving tons of advice and then analyzing their game.
I admit at times I’ve given the pregame prep talk but I’ve done my best to limit that. After games my son usually asks me “how do you think I played?” I respond with either “what did the coach think” or I’ll give a few positives that I liked. If he doesn’t ask, I simply say, “did you have fun?” But before every game, no matter what, we have done the same routine with the same words every time since he started playing sports many years ago. I give him a hug and say “have fun, play hard, I love you”. That’s it. Same words I said when he was 5 still being said now when he’s 14. I hope he keeps playing so I can keep saying it.
So when you son or daughter has their next game, take a deep breath, relax, and tell them to have fun, play hard, and that you love them. Trust me on this one….that’s more than enough.
Good article here for reading: https://theeastvision.info/8019/opinion/the-overbearing-role-of-parents-in-youth-sports/
Have a great day!
