Admit it. There are moments, or hours, or even days, when you hate being a sports parent.
If it hasn’t happened to you yet, I can promise you it will, if your kids stay in sports.
And there’s a lot to hate:
The drama.
The traveling.
The money.
The politics.
The unfairness.
The frustration of watching your kid struggle.
The ridiculous parents.
I could go on.
But you know what? In those moments–or hours or days or weeks–you can still love being a sports parent. And here’s why:
When your kid is surrounded by drama, they can learn to get along with people. They can learn to ignore the garbage and focus on the game.
When you’re tired of all the road trips, you remind yourself that if nothing else, you are making memories with your family.
When you’re sick of shelling out money, you can look at the investment you are making in your child, not just in his sports, but in his character development.
When the politics makes you want to throw up, you can talk with your kid and help them sort through the ugliness, help them learn to deal with difficult situations.
When the unfairness hits–your child gets shoved aside for a less-skilled player or your child works hard and gets no reward–you can give your kid an extra hug and let him know that even when life’s not fair, you still love him and are his biggest fan.
When you don’t know if you can stand another day of watching your kid struggle to improve his game with little success, you are given another chance to express your pride in him for his hard work and persistence.
And when you think you are so sick of crazy parents that you seriously want to punch one in the face, you can show strength to your kid by walking away and leaving the parent to fester in his own ridiculous garbage.
When it comes to sports and your kids, there really is a lot to love, if we can just remember that it’s not really about the game anyway. It’s about who your child becomes in the process.
Janis,
Great post. I think that this should be posted on the locker room (see I’m getting into your terminology)of all young people involved in sport. In the UK there are numerous parents who seem to live their failed ambitions through their children’s sport. They forget how their child’s sporting experience can help the young person develop as individuals. This would certainly help them to re-focus on the positives of their child being involved in sport, at whatever level.
It truly is sad to see parents try to live out their failed ambitions through their kids, especially when the kids don’t really want the same ambitions! I’ve seen many parents push their kids to be something the kid really does not want to be.
Great perspective Janis. My kids are little, and nowhere close to sports, but this attitude can be applied to all sorts of things.
PS – I love your blog design. Very clean and easy to navigate!
Thanks, Tara! I love my design too. It’s quite a change from the old blogger site I had. Thanks to my nephew for the graphic and Shan at Last Shreads of Sanity for their creativity in customizing the site.