Siblings of High Performing Athletes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a high performing athlete sibling when I was a kid (took some time off from school/ life to see if he could go pro- he didn’t make it). I think my parents did a great job. Even when there were big competitions for my brother, rarely did I get drug along (unless my own schedule was free and I wanted to go). . Sometimes one parent would go, but sometimes if I had a minor thing (school play, my own tiny sports thing) both would come to my thing instead. They *never* made me think my activities were any less important. I think I would have been resentful if our whole family schedule revolved around his sport, but in reality it was just one more thing on our family’s schedule. Once my brother had a driver’s license he drive himself hours away on his own (it was a specialized individual sport (golf) - not a team thing with a bus).

This is so important. The only time I see situations that seem like a problem is when the parents' time and attention (and money) is all focused on one kid. If the other child is made to go sit and watch the sibling perform at some far-away venue every weekend and/or gets left with the neighbors or babysitter while the parents are away with the sibling, it can breed resentment.

[Anonymous]

OP here
Thank you for all your responses. Very helpful

Some mentioned where our focus is so wanted to clarify that we never bring our other child to local competitions unless she asks and only one parent will travel with athlete to ensure sibling can do her interests and not be disrupted. DC2 has any extracurricular opportunity she wants including sports and arts. We celebrate younger child's accomplishments as much as older child's.