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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's a good question, but no one will say the reason why about half of the kids (3/4ths of the girls) play -- "because me and the husband are super competitive and want to watch our little Suzy kick some other kid's arse." [/quote]

I don't know any parents who push their kids into travel soccer. I have a competitive, sporty kid who loves it -- and thus I love it for her. Maybe I look like the people you describe, but I love watching her do something she loves. I'm pretty sure that's the case for everyone else. There's no way you could really do this if it wasn't kid lead.[/quote]

+1  My son is a U13.  If you are able to make your U13 kid train 4 days a week, plays game(s) on the weekend practically year round...your son is actually a big mindless pushover.  My kid plays because he wants to.  Sure I might be able to make him play rec to run around one day a week to burn energy by threatening to take away his phone, but there is no way I would be able to make him do what he does.  Maybe this is a rec thing where half are pushed into it...and, if so, so what. They need exercise.[/quote]

PP here. Exactly. There is no way a person could get their kid to work this hard if their kid really wants to be doing other things.

OP, I think you are trying to correlate loud, aggressive parents with parents who are forcing their kids to play. I don't think such a correlation really exists. I think parents find themselves emotionally involved in lots of areas of their kids lives and soccer is just one where you see it all on display. It doesn't mean that these kids aren't self-motivated.[/quote]

Maybe you’re right. Related, though, to the fact that you “see it all on display” - the kids see it all on display, too. They see that their parents care, that their parents are overjoyed when they score a goal, livid when a ref misses a call, etc. In a lot of homes, a kid brings home an A+ on a test and gets a “good job, honey” while a goal pulls Mom and Dad out of their chairs and gets them acting like fools (myself included)...that has to have a psychological effect that keeps some kids coming back, even if they aren’t living and breathing soccer.  Just my observation, but it seems to me that there are a good number of kids (in travel as well as rec) that don’t watch or follow soccer, don’t play much pick up, don’t often touch a ball when they have free time, and it makes me think that they aren’t in it for themselves. It’s parents or it gives them a social identity, etc. [/quote]
If soccer (or being good at sports) gives them a social identity, is that a negative thing?[/quote]

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