Ninja Warrior Training - ugh
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Anonymous
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I have a 9 year old and 7 year old obsessed with this fad. Going on 3 years now.
Obviously the eldest inspired the younger one; and we have indulged the interest as it kept them active and us not watching Phineas and Ferb every night for their TV time to watch the show on line/dvr. Fast forward to uncountable trips to zava zone, gymnastics (private and classes), trampoline and obstacles in our yard, parkour training and memberships to indoor climbing clubs (had to cut deals for the youngest) I have two kids really skilled at stuff not many can do, and absolutely none of their peers care about. Our short term gain has turned into a serious concern, not only because they continue to escalate their challenges/rush to do more stupid shit (oldest is now banned from diving boards at pool after flipping on the board and then flipping into pool) they are both becoming outcasts by the mainstream athletic kids. I totally get it, the great flag football players/kickball/soccer guys will shun them as a defense play/its weird and thus not cool; but can you pivot a kids (albeit niche) agility to something more socially acceptable? Has anyone gone through this and found a way to balance weird interests to not relegating your child to the outcast/skateboarder/kids with tattoos at age 10 table for lunch? I get it those kids are cool later in life, and no offense to the boarders or parkour fanatics out there but if my boys put 10% of their skills to a team sport they could get by, maybe be decent and at least social at some level. I am tired of being the parent of the "crazy" kids...we created this monster; understand we may not be able to stop it entirely - but can you balance it? |
Anonymous
| Look I get that you were annoyed but why do you have to drag all their peers into it? |
Anonymous
| you encouraged it. what do you expect? |
Anonymous
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Sounds like your kids are happy. And fit.
But that's not good enough and you want them to be popular instead, is that it? |
Anonymous
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Weird-parkour is incredibly popular at my kid’s elementary. It’s the first extracurricular to fill up, they have a club, and just did a fundraiser with parkour as a draw. There are kids ninja teams, and my coworkers daughter does team rock climbing-so it can be a team sport. Your experience hasn’t been mine at all.
They do need to learn that it’s inappropriate in certain settings (like the pool) and that not everyone wants to hear about it all the time. But that would be true of ANY activity. That may be what’s alienating people (if in fact, that’s happening). |
Anonymous
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Weird. My 7 and 9 year olds are super impressed by the kid who can do all the cool ninja stuff and wish they could too. Parkour, climbing, even the ninja stuff itself are all totally acceptable sports, especially to 7-9 year old boys! I think you’re focusing on the wrong thing - I doubt it’s their flips that are causing problems. I suspect the real problem is that they are behaving in socially unexceptable ways - flipping when other kids are focusing on something else, showing off, interrupting other kids, bouncing around and being annoying when it’s not the time and place. A kid with a basketball can cause the same problems. Let your boys develop the interests they want, but guide them in not being annoying about it, and they’ll be okay.
You might consider signing them up for diving too. All that athletecism will pay off, but they’ll need to learn to control it, use the equipment properly, wait quietly and respectfully for their turn, etc. |
Anonymous
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It’s not their skills and athleticism that’s causing social problems, it’s lilely their obsession with it and how much they talk about f and what they do with it when other kids aren’t doing it.
But is it in your head that they’re unpopular? How do you know? And are they happy? I was unpopular but happy growing up. Popular kids weren’t the nicest group, |
Anonymous
| Sign them up for flag football then. |
Anonymous
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The Nova Ninja/Loudoun Crossfit gym has a kids ninja competition team that trains together and does competitions and fun runs etc together. If you live nearby, I would look into it. Indoor climbing gyms also have kids competition teams.
I honestly don't see the problem. Its great exercise and they love it. Stop making issues out of nothing. |
Anonymous
Sign them up for climbing classes and comps - they will find their tribe there. |
Anonymous
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Well, to start, your kids are getting old enough that you should probably tell them "stop doing parkour stuff when you're not in parkour class or in our backyard which is set up appropriately for it."
It's a cool skill and I'm sure they're competent, but it's inherently dangerous and schools and other parents will view it as a liability, as they should. Other kids will also try to copy them, and could get hurt without training/supervision if your kids are doing somewhat advanced stuff. We have been on that side of it, and we find it SUPER annoying, and our kids probably glean that from us. If you want them to sign up for another sport, tell them they have to and cut back. You're the parent. |
Anonymous
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Is that all your kids talk about or want to do when with other kids?
Example, if they're playing soccer with the neighborhood kids, are they out there doing flips and kicks instead of really playing? 9 is especially when boys start getting serious about sports. It's less about fun and more about winning, unfortunately. One of my son's friends was really into parkour. What annoyed his friends about him was that he was always doing it. If they were out walking somewhere, he was the one running and flipping off a wall. If they were playing a sport outside, he was doing flips and fooling around instead of really playing. Part of it was a show-off mentality, too, IMO. He could do what 90% of the boys couldn't and was always "look at me!" about it. |
Anonymous
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What signs are you seeing that your kids are becoming "outcasts?" And while it may be "mainstream" for kids to play traditional sports, I'm not sure they are the majority of kids.
I say let your kids find their own place/crowd in the playground. If they complain about who they hang out with at lunch, encourage them to try new activities, sports or clubs. It seems like you might be projecting. |
Anonymous
+1 People find the weirdest shit to complain about. Kids are active and passionate about something that doesn't involve rotting brain cells staring at screens? Not good enough. |
Anonymous
| Have either tried martial arts? My child does it and wants to someday be on their demonstration team, because he thinks all of the jumps and flips are so cool. They put on shows and go to competitions. He asked me to take gymnastics classes so he could learn flips but what he really wants to do is all of the stuff your sons are into. |