This is why we put our kids in sports!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think OP's argument is not fully baked, but isn't completely wrong, either.

I have a very whiny Gen Z employee who definitely did not ever play sports and definitely has no resilience. Not sure sports would have fixed her issues, though.

correlation vs causation.. that's the point people are making.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teens and young adults these days are WAY too sheltered, spoiled, lazy, immature, and lack grit and resilience (the two most important characteristics for success!). I put my kids into sports not to help with college admissions or scholarships, but because sports participation builds grit, resilience, character, the ability to work through tough times, and the ability to bounce back from failure when things aren't going your way.

I'm also a hiring manager and oversee recent college grads/workers in their 20s (early Gen Z/late Gen Y). The VAST majority of people in this age range lack grit and resilience, and they are a major PITA for most workplaces. The sheer lack of grit, resilience, and the ability to persevere when times are tough among recent college grads these days is depressingly low, so I know by pushing my kids in sports (even though I know they're nowhere near good enough to get recruited), I'm doing them a world of favors.

I don't normally post on the Sports forum -- I mainly stick to the Jobs forum and the Real Estate forum. However, this post in the Jobs & Careers forum stuck out to me:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1071777.page

TL DR: Spoiled Ivy League kid is pissed she has to take out $80k in loans and doesn't want to stay at her (elite, prestigious) Ivy since it's "too stressful" and "too competitive" and "too cutthroat" and yadda yadda yadda all that BS. It is painfully obvious that this girl's parents never put her in team sports (or any team activity, really) where she had to fail and bounce back from disappointing losses to build grit and resilience. This spoiled young woman is unable to bounce back from her negativity and constant whining to rise above and lead and create a positive outlook on an objectively amazing opportunity that 99% of Americans would kill to have. But no, like so many sheltered DMV rich kids I see, she insists on having everything perfectly catered to her snowflake sensibilities.

And THAT is why I put my kids in sports -- to build a competitive spirit, to learn to win and lose gracefully, and to build their ability to stick through undesirably situations. I know that they won't end up like the navel-gazing OP of the thread above since I push them in team sports.

You sound exactly like the Tiger Parents in that other thread and also like the kind of coach most well adjusted parents hate. Screaming in a kid's face is one way to get them to perform. It's not the only way. You sound horrid, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about the people who can’t afford to put the kids in sports? Will those kids lack “grit and resilience”?

OP is a privileged, clueless person who doesn't understand that resilient people come from all different kinds of backgrounds. OP can't imagine how someone they are interviewing may not have come from a family who could afford/provide team sports for their kid.

OP probably only assumes they have "grit" but have never lived in poverty, parents who couldn't speak the language to help with HW or navigate the school system; never had SN challenges, health challenges. If OP had any of the aforementioned challenges, I do wonder if OP would have the grit and resilience to be in that position to interview others.

I don't think this thread is going the way that OP assumed it would go.

A person who went to a no name university, worked their way through college, didn't play sports, comes from a background that is not privileged probably has more grit than a kid who played team sports whose parents have college degrees and have the means to pay for team sports.

I hope that OP learns from this thread.

So true

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP can’t even get anyone to back her up in the Sports forum.

OP is a woman? I was imagining a man. Like this over the hill, community college grad.

Meanwhile this is the kind of coaching that creates winners like Kevin Durant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish sports had given my son all of those things, but 12 years of sport never managed to change his personality. You wouldn't be surprised to learn that he was consistently the slowest on the team. He's the least competitive kid in the world, but also the nicest.

Wait, forcing my child to be the person I want them to be isn't going to work?

It will work if you do it the right way.

[Anonymous]

Ok, OP I think you're pretty off base. Sports for kids can be great. They can be alot of fun and enjoyable for kids, making friends, having fun ect. But, they are not necessary, sure, kids can learn alot of things from youth sports, but they can also learn the same things in other ways. I hate all the negative stereotypes about kids who don't play sports, f9rst of all not all kids like sports and want to play them, but for some reason ppl don't realize alot of kids can't play sports. Also, overscheduled kids/teens is a huge problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, sports parents are the literal worst. So simple-minded.

You’ve clearly never been to a chess competition

I don’t see any chess parents on here being snotty b**tches.

You would be surprised

Ok, link me up, defensive sports mom! I'll wait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son who is in medical school to be a trauma surgeon never played sports. He has true grit. You can't generalize about kids.

Seriously. My sister who is a surgeon and pumps milk to feed her baby while at the same time skillfully performing surgery and rarely if ever complains about the insane amount of tasks on her plate managing motherhood, being a sole source of food for a human, AND her residency was pretty mediocre at sports and did very little in the end. She has more resilience and grit than just about anyone I know. Sports can be great, I look forward to the fun my kids will have on sports teams if they end up enjoying it (they are too young to know) but humans are complex - things are not this simple, sorry.

[Anonymous]

I can't imagine what kind of person would read the thread OP linked here and not feel compassion. OP, you are a horrible, horrible person. You actually LINKED a thread someone else posted about being miserable, simply to criticize them publicly here.

HORRIBLE. What kind of snakes do you have seething inside you to do a thing like that? This has nothing to do with sports or with your kids having grit. It's you being an evil, mean bully. Shame on you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:...

I'm also a hiring manager and oversee recent college grads/workers in their 20s (early Gen Z/late Gen Y). The VAST majority of people in this age range lack grit and resilience, and they are a major PITA for most workplaces. The sheer lack of grit, resilience, and the ability to persevere when times are tough among recent college grads these days is depressingly low, so I know by pushing my kids in sports (even though I know they're nowhere near good enough to get recruited), I'm doing them a world of favors.

...

Wait though, aren't these the kids that grew up in the sports obsessed child rearing culture of the 21st century? I want OP to come back and explain why the new hires aren't proof of the opposite conclusion, that sports DON'T help develop grit and resilience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think OP's argument is not fully baked, but isn't completely wrong, either.

I have a very whiny Gen Z employee who definitely did not ever play sports and definitely has no resilience. Not sure sports would have fixed her issues, though.

You are missing it.

A person who played sports as a kid is not going to be any more or less whiny than one who didn’t. Sports has nothing to do with whether someone has grit/resilience/whatever.

[Anonymous]

I love sports and all that it teaches.

That said, it is up to parents to stop coddling their kids and ease them into adulthood BEFORE they move out. Athletics is not just it.

Go on any college freshman forum page and lord have mercy those parents act like are sending away kindergarten age students to boarding school.

[Anonymous]

Have people here read the thread the OP refers to? The young woman is clinically depressed and suicidal. Her parents had crushing expectations for her when she was growing up. It is unbelievably callous and clueless that the OP claims her real problem is her lack of grit (and presumably lack of sports). I found it disgusting to see adults on that thread calling a suicidal teenager a loser and a snowflake. For shame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have people here read the thread the OP refers to? The young woman is clinically depressed and suicidal. Her parents had crushing expectations for her when she was growing up. It is unbelievably callous and clueless that the OP claims her real problem is her lack of grit (and presumably lack of sports). I found it disgusting to see adults on that thread calling a suicidal teenager a loser and a snowflake. For shame.

+1 OP is a disgusting pig for linking to that thread. Disgusting, vile thing to do to mock someone who is suffering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about the people who can’t afford to put the kids in sports? Will those kids lack “grit and resilience”?

OP is a privileged, clueless person who doesn't understand that resilient people come from all different kinds of backgrounds. OP can't imagine how someone they are interviewing may not have come from a family who could afford/provide team sports for their kid.

OP probably only assumes they have "grit" but have never lived in poverty, parents who couldn't speak the language to help with HW or navigate the school system; never had SN challenges, health challenges. If OP had any of the aforementioned challenges, I do wonder if OP would have the grit and resilience to be in that position to interview others.

I don't think this thread is going the way that OP assumed it would go.

A person who went to a no name university, worked their way through college, didn't play sports, comes from a background that is not privileged probably has more grit than a kid who played team sports whose parents have college degrees and have the means to pay for team sports.

I hope that OP learns from this thread.

I ❣️ You.