Should you push young kids in sports?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't push and let her have a life outside of sports

This. My kid's friends who do soccer have no time for anything else, it takes over evenings and weekends. Even though she likes it, I personally would consider dropping it for something less all-consuming. It's important to me that my kid have time for other things.

I agree with you, but it’s kid dependent. If the kid is going to use their free time for truly rejuvenating things (sleeping, socializing, family time, hobbies, roaming around and staring at clouds) that’s fine. But if they are going to be on their phone the whole time, it’s probably better to overschedule them.

Why not just take the phone or at least limit it?

Why not just parent your own kid and let other people parent theirs?

Why so defensive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD8 plays travel soccer. She is ok. Not the best not the worst. I think if we pushed her more she could move up to the higher level teams. Is it worth it? I see other kids who are definitely pushed by their parents to do more practice individually outside of practice times or have private coaches. Not sure what the end goal is for an 8 year old.

FWIW I played travel everything growing up and loved it but never played in college.

Academics come first in our family however - both DH and I have masters or higher education and were high achievers throughout high school and college. Kids right now are doing very well in school.

Advice from the other side- my kids are in high school and college this is what I’ve learned.

1. Sports (especially competitive sports) are the best and easiest way to make sure your child gets the exercise, socialization and screen free time that your kids need. There’s lots of ways to make sure they get all that but having a set schedule and plan is way easier than doing it yourself.

2. The bad stuff about sports (overuse injuries, pressure, stress etc.). Is almost always a product of the parent’s attitude.

3. Sports are an excellent window in your child’s world. You will see how they interact with friends, authority, how they handle stree and even if they have developmental issues.

4. Sports will give you and your child a joint project (ie their sports career) that will deepen your relationship and give you plenty of opportunities to reinforce lessons and values.

5. You may find your best friends on those fields. I have friends from school and work but the guys that I coached with and put together teams with are some of my favorite people.

6. In my experience sports always helped with academics because practices and games structured thier time. Their worst grades always came when they were off-season.

On big caveat- all of this depends on you and your child. If he really is drawn to dance or robotics or something else you should do that thing (in my experience parents have a large roll in determining what there kids are into) also if you can not stand sports it will be miserable for both of you.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't push and let her have a life outside of sports

This. My kid's friends who do soccer have no time for anything else, it takes over evenings and weekends. Even though she likes it, I personally would consider dropping it for something less all-consuming. It's important to me that my kid have time for other things.

I agree with you, but it’s kid dependent. If the kid is going to use their free time for truly rejuvenating things (sleeping, socializing, family time, hobbies, roaming around and staring at clouds) that’s fine. But if they are going to be on their phone the whole time, it’s probably better to overschedule them.

Kids need to have a life outside of school, homework and activities. Will some kids not use their time wisely? Yes, but that doesn't mean you should treat all kids like that.

My daughter in the 4th grade had a friend whose mother scheduled her every waking hour. She came with us to a cookout that was near a Fourth of July carnival. She had never gone to one and I’d never seen her so happy. By, middle school she had turned awkward and uncomfortable in social settings. She never had a minute to experience life outside of supervised training.

For every story like that, other kids went from D1 athletics to running Fortune 500 companies. I was nationally competitive in a sport that required intense training from a young age - my peers who I trained with are a neurosurgeon, a big law partner, and a trust fund kid with a "job" working in their family office and a busy public social life that mainly involves giving away money. You should probably keep your judgments and predictions of the outcome of high-achieving kids to yourself because it's pretty complicated to predict the trajectory of a fourth grader.

My post was about a 4th grade girl who went from activity to activity from right after school until bedtime in a variety of activities. She was mediocre at everything. Still is.

I do know plenty of former D1 athletes that also played professional sports. Some in my family, hockey and football. They still had outside social lives, don’t be dramatic. And the doctor did not need to play an all consuming sport to become a doctor. Certainly going to law school is not some great feat. Neither is working for your family.

Over scheduling your kids so that they don’t have any kind of social life or family life doest not usually turn out well m

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD8 plays travel soccer. She is ok. Not the best not the worst. I think if we pushed her more she could move up to the higher level teams. Is it worth it? I see other kids who are definitely pushed by their parents to do more practice individually outside of practice times or have private coaches. Not sure what the end goal is for an 8 year old.

FWIW I played travel everything growing up and loved it but never played in college.

Academics come first in our family however - both DH and I have masters or higher education and were high achievers throughout high school and college. Kids right now are doing very well in school.

Advice from the other side- my kids are in high school and college this is what I’ve learned.

1. Sports (especially competitive sports) are the best and easiest way to make sure your child gets the exercise, socialization and screen free time that your kids need. There’s lots of ways to make sure they get all that but having a set schedule and plan is way easier than doing it yourself.

2. The bad stuff about sports (overuse injuries, pressure, stress etc.). Is almost always a product of the parent’s attitude.

3. Sports are an excellent window in your child’s world. You will see how they interact with friends, authority, how they handle stree and even if they have developmental issues.

4. Sports will give you and your child a joint project (ie their sports career) that will deepen your relationship and give you plenty of opportunities to reinforce lessons and values.

5. You may find your best friends on those fields. I have friends from school and work but the guys that I coached with and put together teams with are some of my favorite people.

6. In my experience sports always helped with academics because practices and games structured thier time. Their worst grades always came when they were off-season.

On big caveat- all of this depends on you and your child. If he really is drawn to dance or robotics or something else you should do that thing (in my experience parents have a large roll in determining what there kids are into) also if you can not stand sports it will be miserable for both of you.

Good luck!

All that sounds good, but a kid doesn't need sports for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD8 plays travel soccer. She is ok. Not the best not the worst. I think if we pushed her more she could move up to the higher level teams. Is it worth it? I see other kids who are definitely pushed by their parents to do more practice individually outside of practice times or have private coaches. Not sure what the end goal is for an 8 year old.

FWIW I played travel everything growing up and loved it but never played in college.

Academics come first in our family however - both DH and I have masters or higher education and were high achievers throughout high school and college. Kids right now are doing very well in school.

Advice from the other side- my kids are in high school and college this is what I’ve learned.

1. Sports (especially competitive sports) are the best and easiest way to make sure your child gets the exercise, socialization and screen free time that your kids need. There’s lots of ways to make sure they get all that but having a set schedule and plan is way easier than doing it yourself.

2. The bad stuff about sports (overuse injuries, pressure, stress etc.). Is almost always a product of the parent’s attitude.

3. Sports are an excellent window in your child’s world. You will see how they interact with friends, authority, how they handle stree and even if they have developmental issues.

4. Sports will give you and your child a joint project (ie their sports career) that will deepen your relationship and give you plenty of opportunities to reinforce lessons and values.

5. You may find your best friends on those fields. I have friends from school and work but the guys that I coached with and put together teams with are some of my favorite people.

6. In my experience sports always helped with academics because practices and games structured thier time. Their worst grades always came when they were off-season.

On big caveat- all of this depends on you and your child. If he really is drawn to dance or robotics or something else you should do that thing (in my experience parents have a large roll in determining what there kids are into) also if you can not stand sports it will be miserable for both of you.

Good luck!

All that sounds good, but a kid doesn't need sports for that.

Sports just makes it way easier and more fun. But you can freehand all of that if you want

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD8 plays travel soccer. She is ok. Not the best not the worst. I think if we pushed her more she could move up to the higher level teams. Is it worth it? I see other kids who are definitely pushed by their parents to do more practice individually outside of practice times or have private coaches. Not sure what the end goal is for an 8 year old.

FWIW I played travel everything growing up and loved it but never played in college.

Academics come first in our family however - both DH and I have masters or higher education and were high achievers throughout high school and college. Kids right now are doing very well in school.

Advice from the other side- my kids are in high school and college this is what I’ve learned.

1. Sports (especially competitive sports) are the best and easiest way to make sure your child gets the exercise, socialization and screen free time that your kids need. There’s lots of ways to make sure they get all that but having a set schedule and plan is way easier than doing it yourself.

2. The bad stuff about sports (overuse injuries, pressure, stress etc.). Is almost always a product of the parent’s attitude.

3. Sports are an excellent window in your child’s world. You will see how they interact with friends, authority, how they handle stree and even if they have developmental issues.

4. Sports will give you and your child a joint project (ie their sports career) that will deepen your relationship and give you plenty of opportunities to reinforce lessons and values.

5. You may find your best friends on those fields. I have friends from school and work but the guys that I coached with and put together teams with are some of my favorite people.

6. In my experience sports always helped with academics because practices and games structured thier time. Their worst grades always came when they were off-season.

On big caveat- all of this depends on you and your child. If he really is drawn to dance or robotics or something else you should do that thing (in my experience parents have a large roll in determining what there kids are into) also if you can not stand sports it will be miserable for both of you.

Good luck!

All that sounds good, but a kid doesn't need sports for that.

Sports just makes it way easier and more fun. But you can freehand all of that if you want

I don't know about more fun, but fair enough

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't push and let her have a life outside of sports

This. My kid's friends who do soccer have no time for anything else, it takes over evenings and weekends. Even though she likes it, I personally would consider dropping it for something less all-consuming. It's important to me that my kid have time for other things.

I agree with you, but it’s kid dependent. If the kid is going to use their free time for truly rejuvenating things (sleeping, socializing, family time, hobbies, roaming around and staring at clouds) that’s fine. But if they are going to be on their phone the whole time, it’s probably better to overschedule them.

Why not just take the phone or at least limit it?

Why not just parent your own kid and let other people parent theirs?

Why so defensive?

Why so offensive? You know what they say about the BEST defense?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD8 plays travel soccer. She is ok. Not the best not the worst. I think if we pushed her more she could move up to the higher level teams. Is it worth it? I see other kids who are definitely pushed by their parents to do more practice individually outside of practice times or have private coaches. Not sure what the end goal is for an 8 year old.

FWIW I played travel everything growing up and loved it but never played in college.

Academics come first in our family however - both DH and I have masters or higher education and were high achievers throughout high school and college. Kids right now are doing very well in school.

Advice from the other side- my kids are in high school and college this is what I’ve learned.

1. Sports (especially competitive sports) are the best and easiest way to make sure your child gets the exercise, socialization and screen free time that your kids need. There’s lots of ways to make sure they get all that but having a set schedule and plan is way easier than doing it yourself.

2. The bad stuff about sports (overuse injuries, pressure, stress etc.). Is almost always a product of the parent’s attitude.

3. Sports are an excellent window in your child’s world. You will see how they interact with friends, authority, how they handle stree and even if they have developmental issues.

4. Sports will give you and your child a joint project (ie their sports career) that will deepen your relationship and give you plenty of opportunities to reinforce lessons and values.

5. You may find your best friends on those fields. I have friends from school and work but the guys that I coached with and put together teams with are some of my favorite people.

6. In my experience sports always helped with academics because practices and games structured thier time. Their worst grades always came when they were off-season.

On big caveat- all of this depends on you and your child. If he really is drawn to dance or robotics or something else you should do that thing (in my experience parents have a large roll in determining what there kids are into) also if you can not stand sports it will be miserable for both of you.

Good luck!

All that sounds good, but a kid doesn't need sports for that.

Nobody said they do, dummy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD8 plays travel soccer. She is ok. Not the best not the worst. I think if we pushed her more she could move up to the higher level teams. Is it worth it? I see other kids who are definitely pushed by their parents to do more practice individually outside of practice times or have private coaches. Not sure what the end goal is for an 8 year old.

FWIW I played travel everything growing up and loved it but never played in college.

Academics come first in our family however - both DH and I have masters or higher education and were high achievers throughout high school and college. Kids right now are doing very well in school.

Advice from the other side- my kids are in high school and college this is what I’ve learned.

1. Sports (especially competitive sports) are the best and easiest way to make sure your child gets the exercise, socialization and screen free time that your kids need. There’s lots of ways to make sure they get all that but having a set schedule and plan is way easier than doing it yourself.

2. The bad stuff about sports (overuse injuries, pressure, stress etc.). Is almost always a product of the parent’s attitude.

3. Sports are an excellent window in your child’s world. You will see how they interact with friends, authority, how they handle stree and even if they have developmental issues.

4. Sports will give you and your child a joint project (ie their sports career) that will deepen your relationship and give you plenty of opportunities to reinforce lessons and values.

5. You may find your best friends on those fields. I have friends from school and work but the guys that I coached with and put together teams with are some of my favorite people.

6. In my experience sports always helped with academics because practices and games structured thier time. Their worst grades always came when they were off-season.

On big caveat- all of this depends on you and your child. If he really is drawn to dance or robotics or something else you should do that thing (in my experience parents have a large roll in determining what there kids are into) also if you can not stand sports it will be miserable for both of you.

Good luck!

All that sounds good, but a kid doesn't need sports for that.

Nobody said they do, dummy.

Rude!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD8 plays travel soccer. She is ok. Not the best not the worst. I think if we pushed her more she could move up to the higher level teams. Is it worth it? I see other kids who are definitely pushed by their parents to do more practice individually outside of practice times or have private coaches. Not sure what the end goal is for an 8 year old.

FWIW I played travel everything growing up and loved it but never played in college.

Academics come first in our family however - both DH and I have masters or higher education and were high achievers throughout high school and college. Kids right now are doing very well in school.

Advice from the other side- my kids are in high school and college this is what I’ve learned.

1. Sports (especially competitive sports) are the best and easiest way to make sure your child gets the exercise, socialization and screen free time that your kids need. There’s lots of ways to make sure they get all that but having a set schedule and plan is way easier than doing it yourself.

2. The bad stuff about sports (overuse injuries, pressure, stress etc.). Is almost always a product of the parent’s attitude.

3. Sports are an excellent window in your child’s world. You will see how they interact with friends, authority, how they handle stree and even if they have developmental issues.

4. Sports will give you and your child a joint project (ie their sports career) that will deepen your relationship and give you plenty of opportunities to reinforce lessons and values.

5. You may find your best friends on those fields. I have friends from school and work but the guys that I coached with and put together teams with are some of my favorite people.

6. In my experience sports always helped with academics because practices and games structured thier time. Their worst grades always came when they were off-season.

On big caveat- all of this depends on you and your child. If he really is drawn to dance or robotics or something else you should do that thing (in my experience parents have a large roll in determining what there kids are into) also if you can not stand sports it will be miserable for both of you.

Good luck!

All that sounds good, but a kid doesn't need sports for that.

Nobody said they do, dummy.

Rude!!

But true!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD8 plays travel soccer. She is ok. Not the best not the worst. I think if we pushed her more she could move up to the higher level teams. Is it worth it? I see other kids who are definitely pushed by their parents to do more practice individually outside of practice times or have private coaches. Not sure what the end goal is for an 8 year old.

FWIW I played travel everything growing up and loved it but never played in college.

Academics come first in our family however - both DH and I have masters or higher education and were high achievers throughout high school and college. Kids right now are doing very well in school.

Advice from the other side- my kids are in high school and college this is what I’ve learned.

1. Sports (especially competitive sports) are the best and easiest way to make sure your child gets the exercise, socialization and screen free time that your kids need. There’s lots of ways to make sure they get all that but having a set schedule and plan is way easier than doing it yourself.

2. The bad stuff about sports (overuse injuries, pressure, stress etc.). Is almost always a product of the parent’s attitude.

3. Sports are an excellent window in your child’s world. You will see how they interact with friends, authority, how they handle stree and even if they have developmental issues.

4. Sports will give you and your child a joint project (ie their sports career) that will deepen your relationship and give you plenty of opportunities to reinforce lessons and values.

5. You may find your best friends on those fields. I have friends from school and work but the guys that I coached with and put together teams with are some of my favorite people.

6. In my experience sports always helped with academics because practices and games structured thier time. Their worst grades always came when they were off-season.

On big caveat- all of this depends on you and your child. If he really is drawn to dance or robotics or something else you should do that thing (in my experience parents have a large roll in determining what there kids are into) also if you can not stand sports it will be miserable for both of you.

Good luck!

All that sounds good, but a kid doesn't need sports for that.

Sports just makes it way easier and more fun. But you can freehand all of that if you want

I understood your earlier points but I don't agree that sports is necessarily the way easier and more fun route. It really just depends on the person. For some parents theater, music, robotics, literally anything else might be more interesting than driving to tournaments and sitting outside in rain, cold weather, etc for practices. My DD is a competitive golfer and I don't see myself becoming best friends with any of the dads that I have to hang out with while we caddie for our kids and that's totally fine with me. I have plenty of friends from college, grad school, work, moms groups, volunteering at school, neighbors. I do it to support my DD and her interests. Its great that you got so much joy out of it but to dismiss other activities as not as fun as sports is rude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't push and let her have a life outside of sports

This. My kid's friends who do soccer have no time for anything else, it takes over evenings and weekends. Even though she likes it, I personally would consider dropping it for something less all-consuming. It's important to me that my kid have time for other things.

I agree with you, but it’s kid dependent. If the kid is going to use their free time for truly rejuvenating things (sleeping, socializing, family time, hobbies, roaming around and staring at clouds) that’s fine. But if they are going to be on their phone the whole time, it’s probably better to overschedule them.

Kids need to have a life outside of school, homework and activities. Will some kids not use their time wisely? Yes, but that doesn't mean you should treat all kids like that.

My daughter in the 4th grade had a friend whose mother scheduled her every waking hour. She came with us to a cookout that was near a Fourth of July carnival. She had never gone to one and I’d never seen her so happy. By, middle school she had turned awkward and uncomfortable in social settings. She never had a minute to experience life outside of supervised training.

For every story like that, other kids went from D1 athletics to running Fortune 500 companies. I was nationally competitive in a sport that required intense training from a young age - my peers who I trained with are a neurosurgeon, a big law partner, and a trust fund kid with a "job" working in their family office and a busy public social life that mainly involves giving away money. You should probably keep your judgments and predictions of the outcome of high-achieving kids to yourself because it's pretty complicated to predict the trajectory of a fourth grader.

My post was about a 4th grade girl who went from activity to activity from right after school until bedtime in a variety of activities. She was mediocre at everything. Still is.

I do know plenty of former D1 athletes that also played professional sports. Some in my family, hockey and football. They still had outside social lives, don’t be dramatic. And the doctor did not need to play an all consuming sport to become a doctor. Certainly going to law school is not some great feat. Neither is working for your family.

Over scheduling your kids so that they don’t have any kind of social life or family life doest not usually turn out well m

Again, there is a use of "overscheduling" on this board. We all have different preferences related to business. A lot of sporty kids get their socialization via sports. Their best friends are their teammates. On travel weekends, they hang together in hotels. On non-travel weekends, they get together for unstructured practice or to socialize. And they often remain close friends for life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD8 plays travel soccer. She is ok. Not the best not the worst. I think if we pushed her more she could move up to the higher level teams. Is it worth it? I see other kids who are definitely pushed by their parents to do more practice individually outside of practice times or have private coaches. Not sure what the end goal is for an 8 year old.

FWIW I played travel everything growing up and loved it but never played in college.

Academics come first in our family however - both DH and I have masters or higher education and were high achievers throughout high school and college. Kids right now are doing very well in school.

Advice from the other side- my kids are in high school and college this is what I’ve learned.

1. Sports (especially competitive sports) are the best and easiest way to make sure your child gets the exercise, socialization and screen free time that your kids need. There’s lots of ways to make sure they get all that but having a set schedule and plan is way easier than doing it yourself.

2. The bad stuff about sports (overuse injuries, pressure, stress etc.). Is almost always a product of the parent’s attitude.

3. Sports are an excellent window in your child’s world. You will see how they interact with friends, authority, how they handle stree and even if they have developmental issues.

4. Sports will give you and your child a joint project (ie their sports career) that will deepen your relationship and give you plenty of opportunities to reinforce lessons and values.

5. You may find your best friends on those fields. I have friends from school and work but the guys that I coached with and put together teams with are some of my favorite people.

6. In my experience sports always helped with academics because practices and games structured thier time. Their worst grades always came when they were off-season.

On big caveat- all of this depends on you and your child. If he really is drawn to dance or robotics or something else you should do that thing (in my experience parents have a large roll in determining what there kids are into) also if you can not stand sports it will be miserable for both of you.

Good luck!

All that sounds good, but a kid doesn't need sports for that.

Sports just makes it way easier and more fun. But you can freehand all of that if you want

I understood your earlier points but I don't agree that sports is necessarily the way easier and more fun route. It really just depends on the person. For some parents theater, music, robotics, literally anything else might be more interesting than driving to tournaments and sitting outside in rain, cold weather, etc for practices. My DD is a competitive golfer and I don't see myself becoming best friends with any of the dads that I have to hang out with while we caddie for our kids and that's totally fine with me. I have plenty of friends from college, grad school, work, moms groups, volunteering at school, neighbors. I do it to support my DD and her interests. Its great that you got so much joy out of it but to dismiss other activities as not as fun as sports is rude.

She didn’t do this. To be blunt, your post makes you sound petty, insecure, and just plain stupid. Maybe pick up a book or something while your daughter is golfing since you’re too good to talk to the other parents anyway. Read it slowly and really aim to work on your comprehension.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD8 plays travel soccer. She is ok. Not the best not the worst. I think if we pushed her more she could move up to the higher level teams. Is it worth it? I see other kids who are definitely pushed by their parents to do more practice individually outside of practice times or have private coaches. Not sure what the end goal is for an 8 year old.

FWIW I played travel everything growing up and loved it but never played in college.

Academics come first in our family however - both DH and I have masters or higher education and were high achievers throughout high school and college. Kids right now are doing very well in school.

Advice from the other side- my kids are in high school and college this is what I’ve learned.

1. Sports (especially competitive sports) are the best and easiest way to make sure your child gets the exercise, socialization and screen free time that your kids need. There’s lots of ways to make sure they get all that but having a set schedule and plan is way easier than doing it yourself.

2. The bad stuff about sports (overuse injuries, pressure, stress etc.). Is almost always a product of the parent’s attitude.

3. Sports are an excellent window in your child’s world. You will see how they interact with friends, authority, how they handle stree and even if they have developmental issues.

4. Sports will give you and your child a joint project (ie their sports career) that will deepen your relationship and give you plenty of opportunities to reinforce lessons and values.

5. You may find your best friends on those fields. I have friends from school and work but the guys that I coached with and put together teams with are some of my favorite people.

6. In my experience sports always helped with academics because practices and games structured thier time. Their worst grades always came when they were off-season.

On big caveat- all of this depends on you and your child. If he really is drawn to dance or robotics or something else you should do that thing (in my experience parents have a large roll in determining what there kids are into) also if you can not stand sports it will be miserable for both of you.

Good luck!

All that sounds good, but a kid doesn't need sports for that.

Sports just makes it way easier and more fun. But you can freehand all of that if you want

I understood your earlier points but I don't agree that sports is necessarily the way easier and more fun route. It really just depends on the person. For some parents theater, music, robotics, literally anything else might be more interesting than driving to tournaments and sitting outside in rain, cold weather, etc for practices. My DD is a competitive golfer and I don't see myself becoming best friends with any of the dads that I have to hang out with while we caddie for our kids and that's totally fine with me. I have plenty of friends from college, grad school, work, moms groups, volunteering at school, neighbors. I do it to support my DD and her interests. Its great that you got so much joy out of it but to dismiss other activities as not as fun as sports is rude.

+1,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD8 plays travel soccer. She is ok. Not the best not the worst. I think if we pushed her more she could move up to the higher level teams. Is it worth it? I see other kids who are definitely pushed by their parents to do more practice individually outside of practice times or have private coaches. Not sure what the end goal is for an 8 year old.

FWIW I played travel everything growing up and loved it but never played in college.

Academics come first in our family however - both DH and I have masters or higher education and were high achievers throughout high school and college. Kids right now are doing very well in school.

Advice from the other side- my kids are in high school and college this is what I’ve learned.

1. Sports (especially competitive sports) are the best and easiest way to make sure your child gets the exercise, socialization and screen free time that your kids need. There’s lots of ways to make sure they get all that but having a set schedule and plan is way easier than doing it yourself.

2. The bad stuff about sports (overuse injuries, pressure, stress etc.). Is almost always a product of the parent’s attitude.

3. Sports are an excellent window in your child’s world. You will see how they interact with friends, authority, how they handle stree and even if they have developmental issues.

4. Sports will give you and your child a joint project (ie their sports career) that will deepen your relationship and give you plenty of opportunities to reinforce lessons and values.

5. You may find your best friends on those fields. I have friends from school and work but the guys that I coached with and put together teams with are some of my favorite people.

6. In my experience sports always helped with academics because practices and games structured thier time. Their worst grades always came when they were off-season.

On big caveat- all of this depends on you and your child. If he really is drawn to dance or robotics or something else you should do that thing (in my experience parents have a large roll in determining what there kids are into) also if you can not stand sports it will be miserable for both of you.

Good luck!

All that sounds good, but a kid doesn't need sports for that.

Sports just makes it way easier and more fun. But you can freehand all of that if you want

I understood your earlier points but I don't agree that sports is necessarily the way easier and more fun route. It really just depends on the person. For some parents theater, music, robotics, literally anything else might be more interesting than driving to tournaments and sitting outside in rain, cold weather, etc for practices. My DD is a competitive golfer and I don't see myself becoming best friends with any of the dads that I have to hang out with while we caddie for our kids and that's totally fine with me. I have plenty of friends from college, grad school, work, moms groups, volunteering at school, neighbors. I do it to support my DD and her interests. Its great that you got so much joy out of it but to dismiss other activities as not as fun as sports is rude.

I'm with the PP who thinks you're reading the quoted poster (with the number list) incorrectly.

I mean, they literally wrote, "On big caveat- all of this depends on you and your child. If he really is drawn to dance or robotics or something else you should do that thing (in my experience parents have a large roll in determining what there kids are into) also if you can not stand sports it will be miserable for both of you. "