What happened to average kids? Where are they?
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Anonymous
This is part of growing up and has happened for decades |
Anonymous
Yes, but those are shitty jobs. Terrible life. -former teacher, related to a nurse and a hotel manager |
Anonymous
PP — it’s definitely not how it used to be. I was a collegiate level athlete and remember everyone having fun playing pick up ball outside during the summers. It was FUN. That’s actually how I learned the game. Never attended any clinics or joined a travel team, etc. There weren’t even travel teams for 7/8 year olds because that’s ridiculous. It’s truly insane now and these young kids are being exploited by leagues and clubs that see $$$. Ask why so many kids are burnt out and turned off by sports now at age 12? It’s because their parents have had them in every league imaginable since age 2. |
Anonymous
“Parents put their kids in activities they’ll be good at and where they won’t be discriminated against!” ~ News at 11 |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
| My kid is average and in fact probably a bit below average in most areas. I totally get it, OP. It’s hard on these young kids to feel day after day that they’re never great at anything. I regret moving to an area that is so focused on achievement. |
Anonymous
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Hm. My son is always top grades, travel teams, etc. My daughter is definitely not. She’s middle of the class and not particularly athletic. But she’s fine about it. She sometimes plays soccer at recess (and has been asking to join a rec team, which we will probably do in the fall), reads graphic novels rather than chapter books, and plays with her friends. She’s an excellent friend, funny as anything, and energetic.
Why not try sports where not a lot of kids have been playing for years? There are always beginner tennis clinics, squash, ninja course, gymnastics, beginner dance, fencing, taekwondo, even art classes. If your kid is 10 and wants to take up soccer, then yeah, he will probably be one of the worst. And if he’s getting bullied about sucking at soccer, that stinks. But I don’t think that’s new, and is really just one of those things kids have to deal with and grow a thicker skin. When I was growing up and didn’t play anything and tried to dabble in major sports (soccer, softball, lacrosse), I got heckled by or even just felt the profound annoyance of my teammates. And that was 40 years ago. It didn’t feel like a new development then. |
Anonymous
Maybe to you they are shitty. Maybe to others they are good jobs! Regardless, it's true - the world needs all kinds of jobs. People's views are so limited on this site. No wonder kids are so stressed out! |
Anonymous
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Kids can still do sports for fun through rec leagues. Who cares if they aren't that good and don't end up making the team in high school? At least they got the experience and learned a bit. There are so many other activities to choose from in MS/HS. There are also many other ways to exercise outside of school. I honestly do not understand the kids sports obsession of so many parents.
Also agree that kids can pick up sports later in life, throughout their long lives! I never swam as a kid, almost drowned. Took up triathlon in my 40s and did an Ironman. |
Anonymous
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I am guessing colleges are partly if not fully responsible. A non-legacy, non-URM kid from a UMC geography needs to be “pointy” in order to have any hope of getting admitted to a T20 (maybe even T50). It wasn’t like this for our generation. A smart well-rounded but not “stellar at X” kid could get in.
It will take some time for UMC parents to calm down and realize their kids can have good lives even outside the T50. |
Anonymous
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As an adult I have:
learned how to play tennis learned how to surf learned how to ski It took a long time for me to work up the courage to do those things because growing up I was told I couldn't because it was "too late to learn how," and I was "no good at sports," and so I spent a lot of my younger adult years thinking that was really set in stone and you just don't try to pick up sports/activities like this if you weren't taught how at age 5. I think you can temper expectations but still support your kid to learn something new if they're interested in it, if only to build the personal confidence that they can and should try to do things in life where a positive outcome is not guaranteed (my husband, also raised with this "it's too late" mentality, is not able to shake it like I did and finds it mind-boggling I continue to challenge myself like this.) That being said, I try to expose my child to lots of stuff like this very early (could ski by age 3, has been playing tennis since 4...unfortunately I do not live in a surfing climate atm) because I'm not an idiot and it's easier to learn these things and get better and competitive if you do it from a young age. But reinforcing the notion that it's too late to learn and try past age 10 or whatever can be negatively formative. |
Anonymous
| The OP wasn't about sports, but the thread has evolved that way. For the parents of kids who just aren't very athletic, why don't you hang up the towel with sports and go full bore on academics and arts? What is this notion of well-roundedness that says it must include a sport? If Larla is good at chess and watercolor painting, nobody cares that she isn't formally enrolled in a sport. |
Anonymous
No. The formula is piano, tennis, dance, straight As, math club, repeat. |
Anonymous
No. Focus on them because can pay the teacher for the days and times they want. No teammates and mercy schedules needed. No teamwork either. |