Sports can often help teach children valuable lessons about life: teamwork, determination, and sportsmanship. They can help kids be healthy and active in the community. However, parents sometimes ruin the fun and excitement by putting too much pressure on their kids to perform well. Recent headlines have shown that “Last March in Greenwich Township, New Jersey, a community league basketball game for girls ages 10 and 11 ended with one angry father reportedly kicking the wife of the winning team’s coach. Witnesses say the meltdown began when a woman in the crowd began taunting players. That same month, a hockey dad in Westborough, Massachusetts, was arrested for allegedly kicking and punching a 10-year-old boy on his son’s opposing team. In June, a St. Paul, Minnesota, father was charged with making “terrorist threats” after, prosecutors say, he promised to shoot the coach of his 12-year-old son’s baseball team “like a dog.” The man explained to a local paper that he began arguing with the coach (he denies threatening to shoot him) because he wanted to protect his son from the trauma he felt as a child when a coach told him he was worthless.”( Crowley, Micheal. "Field of Screams". Reader's Digest. October 2007.). These parents may feel like they are trying to protect their children, yet usually they are doing more harm than good.
When I played little league sports, my dad was one of those loud, obnoxious parents who harassed the officials. His tantrums would absolutely mortify me. I was always embarrassed to be related to the dad that was acting up over trivial things. Then after the games my dad would only lecture me on everything I did wrong; He never focused on anything good. His behavior slowing diminished the passion I had felt for sports in my early years. Like my dad, I believe many parents try to live through their sons or daughters. Maybe they weren’t the star player, but they are obsessed with wanting that for their kids. Everyone wants their kids do well, but sometimes parents get out of hand and spoil the fun. Often at games, parents act more juvenile than their children. They are setting terrible examples and teaching bad lessons. Sometimes parents even taunt other children to mess them and try to make them look bad. What kind of person does this? They are just kids trying to have a good time.
One of the worst examples is the 2000 Thomas Juanta case where a hockey dad beat another dad to death. He was convicted on involuntary manslaughter. How would you feel if your dad killed a man over a sports game? Certain places have resorted to suspending sport schedules because the parents got to crazy, and it has become too dangerous. As long as there are sport games, parents will continue to throw tantrums. But how do we stop things from getting out of control? By banning those that act out from the rest of the games? Parents need to get it together and support the team in a positive way. They are the role models for their kids whether they want to be or not. It would be nice if they could focus on encouraging and cheering on their team instead of trying to put others down and start fights.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Good post! The answer is in your own words: Parents get out of line and "spoil the fun." Kids' sports are supposed to be about fun, but somewhere along the line, the fun part got replaced by the drive to win at any cost. Why is winning so important? Why is winning more important that just having fun and getting some exercise? Because parents have invested too much of their own egos into their kids' play. The adult idea of "success" in the dog-eat-dog world of business and professional sports should not define what kids' sports are all about. Let kids be kids. Let them play just for fun.
Sorry about the deleted post, but I've been trying to think of more to say about why parents act this way, but I realized that I don't know. Why do they want to live through the achievements of their children, when that puts so much pressure on the child that it spoils the fun for the child? I'm not a parent myself, so I just don't know.
It is amazing how intense some parents can get when it comes to there kids and the sports they play. There is also another issue involved in angry sport parents. The parents actions are not only embarrassing their kids, but they are also teaching their kids bad habits. Undoubtably, their kids will act as their parents have. It is important that the vicious cycle stop now.
I completely agree with you here- these parents are absolutely ridiculous. My older brother was an umpire at a local kids baseball league a few summers ago and had to deal with lots of parents similar to those you discussed in your post. It never got to the extremes that you mentioned, but he had to throw parents out of the game a few times because of their poor behavior and sportsmanship. The sad part, these games were for 7 and 8 year olds. At this point in a child's life, they are playing sports for the fun of the game, not the competition. Parents need to calm down and show some support. So many times I think parents are just living vicariously through their children, but they need to have a serious intervention, let their kids be kids and stay out of it unless they are there to be an encourager.
Post a Comment