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    22 Ways to Let Kids be Little in Youth Sports While Helping Them Grow Up: For Parents of Beginners-middle School
    22 Ways to Let Kids be Little in Youth Sports While Helping Them Grow Up: For Parents of Beginners-middle School
    22 Ways to Let Kids be Little in Youth Sports While Helping Them Grow Up: For Parents of Beginners-middle School
    Ebook70 pages1 hour

    22 Ways to Let Kids be Little in Youth Sports While Helping Them Grow Up: For Parents of Beginners-middle School

    By Janis B. Meredith

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    About this ebook

    Parenting a child who’s just starting his youth sports experience is a job that carries huge implications. These years are the foundation for the adults that your kids will become. This book gives 22 practical, specific ways that you can help your child enjoy sports, even while growing through the experience.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateMay 12, 2014
    ISBN9781483528410
    22 Ways to Let Kids be Little in Youth Sports While Helping Them Grow Up: For Parents of Beginners-middle School

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      Book preview

      22 Ways to Let Kids be Little in Youth Sports While Helping Them Grow Up - Janis B. Meredith

      journey!

      #1 Prepare Yourself

      There are some facts you need to know before you sign your child up to play sports. I guess you can say that I’m giving you fair warning because the youth sports scene is not always a pretty one.

      Here’s the unvarnished truth. Read it, tuck it away in the back of your mind, and be ready for the roller coaster ride ahead.

      Playing sports is not all fun and games. After the initial excitement—signing up, buying sports equipment, trying on the uniform—wears off, practice and hard work and tiredness set in. Practice will not always be fun. Your child will be tired. Is the season almost over? And then there’s the drama that is inevitable when kids and parents collide in competition. I’m not gonna lie: Sometimes it gets downright ugly.

      Your child may not be treated fairly. Your kid probably won’t get a lot of things you and he think he deserves: the position he wants (even though he is, of course, better at it than little Johnny), the playing time, the recognition. Sometimes it will be downright unfair and you won’t be able to do anything about it.

      Your job will be exhausting and demanding. You will spend hours traveling, volunteering, washing uniforms, and sitting in bleachers (invest in one of those bleacher chairs now, your butt will thank you). Not to mention the emotional exhaustion of the first two truths I mentioned.

      Sports may not work for your child. It’s OK if your kid tries sports and doesn’t like them. There is always band, ballet, gymnastics, art, drama, student government, choir, photography, Girl or Boy Scouts—and the list goes on. Let him experiment when he is young until he finds his niche. And then support him, even if it means he will not be the sports star you dreamed you’d have.

      Sports will teach hard life lessons for your child and you. Self-control, patience, perspective —if you let it, sports participation can bring about just as much character development in you as it does in your kids. The question is, will you be humble enough to recognize it?

      The Big Question

      Ready to take the youth sports plunge now? OK, before you go any further, I have an important question to ask: What kind of sports parent do you want to be when your kids are older?

      When you have a chance to watch sports events of older kids and you look around at the parents, what kind of sports parenting do you see?

      Pacing, agitated sideliners?

      Positive, enthusiastic spectators?

      Parents clumped in sympathy groups, discussing coaches’ and players’ mistakes?

      Parents yelling and coaching their kids from the bleachers or sidelines?

      Parents who complain loudly to the coaches, refs, players, or each other?

      You probably see all of the above. And right now, you may say, I’ll never end up like that!

      Don’t be so sure of that. It’s a very slippery slope. You do not suddenly wake up one morning and realize that you are one of the above-mentioned sports parenting types. It doesn’t happen overnight. It happens slowly, over the years, one choice at a time.

      Choices like:

      When your young child sits the bench more than you think he should, will you chew the coach out or confront calmly with a question like Is there anything that Johnny can do to improve his game? You have a choice.

      When the coach calls a play that doesn’t seem too smart, will you smirk to other parents about his incompetency or will you keep your mouth shut and be grateful that he’s giving his time to coach your child? You have a choice.

      When your kid comes home crying that she didn’t score because little Jennifer hogged the ball, will you echo her rants or will you listen to her frustration and try to help her understand how she can be a team player regardless? You have a choice.

      Each choice you make will either bring you closer to becoming a strong, supportive sports parent, or it will inch you closer toward being the parent you really don’t want to become.

      Decide NOW, while the score is still rather meaningless, while there is no pressure on your child to perform, and while your job as a parent is as easy as bringing snacks to the game.

      Picture yourself in ten years, determine what you want to end up like as a sports parent. And start choosing

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