Almost 5 year old crying at sports

[Anonymous]

I prefer to give kids opportunities to succeed.
OP seems to want the opposite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all. He is our oldest, so this is our first go at this. He loves sports and we definitely aren’t pushing him (we have two other kids, so honestly this is for him not for us). I think we will start talking about being a good sport at home and that we can’t cry/tantrum at sports or else we won’t be able to participate.

I think it's a process of him getting used to it. This all sounds mostly normal for a 5 year old new to sports. He is still learning to control his emotions. I think telling him he can't cry/tantrum may be hard for him. But in the moment, when he does it - you can ask him to sit out of the game and tell him he can't rejoin until he calms down. And then in the meantime - at other times - can work on strategies he can use to calm himself when he's frustrated. Once he has some more skills for calming himself (distraction, deep breathing, etc.) and once he sees that his tantrums aren't actually meaning he can't play at all, it might help.

Also, just time and practice. It's all new to him right now - it's going to take some adjustment.