Kids Sports

Discussion in Sports & Fitness started by Peninha • Apr 8, 2015.

  1. Peninha

    PeninhaWell-Known Member

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    Those with kids know that sports are time consuming, so what I want to ask here it, where do we as parents draw the line? What is considered healthy for them or it's just too much and invasive of our own time as an adult?
     
  2. TommyVercetti

    TommyVercettiActive Member

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    It's the same way I treat video games. As long as their grades are high, they don't fall asleep in school, they do their chores, and they don't violate curfews, I let them have at it. Otherwise, it's gone forever.

    Also, if you mean that it's time consuming for us, it is. you just have to find time. If you can't, just pick your battles. Attend important games, not practice.
     
  3. Peninha

    PeninhaWell-Known Member

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    That is a good perspective on videogames, I have a strict policy as well, they need to behave or else they don't play. And yes, I meant in the sense that it's time consuming also because they are in an age I need to go with them, they can't still go alone.
     
  4. troutski

    troutskiWell-Known Member

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    For most kids, sports are going to be a positive activity in their daily lives, and that's definitely a good thing for their development. Only kids that misbehave or have other issues should be limited from playing sports. Safety matters, too, though, and parents have to take that into consideration more so than many other factors.
     
  5. Thejamal

    ThejamalActive Member

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    I don't have kids, but as someone who was often on 2 teams and played sports year round, it was absolutely beneficial to me and something I'm grateful I got the opportunity to do. And I did those sports with the encouragement and support of my parents.

    As far as school went, I never had spare time to really fool around with my grades and HW and spent my K-12 education in advanced/honors classes. Its obviously you and your spouses decision, but I would say that a kid being TOO involved is much better than the alternative.
     
  6. DrRipley

    DrRipleyExpert

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    I think the threshold for me would be very high since I'd be a lot more happy if they were obsessing over something productive and healthy like sports rather than just sitting at home obsessing over video games, or when they are older maybe even obsessing over alcohol and getting drunk. Sports teaches a lot like teamwork and discipline so I'd be all for it as long as it doesn't mess too much with their grades.
     
  7. Peninha

    PeninhaWell-Known Member

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    That is important sure, to have them entertained with sports and healthy activities, but I want to live my own life too and to do sports as well, so we need to divide the time. Seem fair no?
     
  8. AtlantaSports

    AtlantaSportsActive Member

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    I grew up playing sports year round, so this question is a little bit off putting to me. I love sports of all kinds, so I hope that my kids enjoy them the same way that I enjoyed them. I would say that it is up to the kids. If they do not want to play that sport, then I won't make them. But if they want to play that sport, they should work and train to their best ability.
     
  9. AtlantaSports

    AtlantaSportsActive Member

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    Also, just to reiterate what you said in the last part of your post, no parent should just sit there during a practice. It seriously throws of the kid and their abilities. If you yell at them during practice while their coach is yelling at them, it may or may not just cause them to shut down completely. Parents, do not attend practice. Just go the games and cheer on your kid.
     
  10. TommyVercetti

    TommyVercettiActive Member

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    Yeah, I know what you mean. Although my kids are everything to me, I make it a point not to 'hover' over them or become one of those aggressive, borderline verbally abusive sports dads. There are a lot of those kinds from where I live who don't miss one practice session.
     
  11. AtlantaSports

    AtlantaSportsActive Member

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    My dad was like that whenever I was that age. I understood the importance of what he was saying and where he was coming from, but he was trying to play the coach all of the time. He really meant well and I fully realized that, but that got old quickly because sometimes what my dad would say would differ completely from what my coach was saying, and that caused a little bit of a conflict between my father and all of my coaches.
     
  12. allswl

    allswlActive Member

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    For my boys when they were young, we allowed them to play any sport they wanted as long as their school work did not suffer and the moment we saw it changing we would reduce or stop the sporting activity. It can be challenging especially if you don't have the time to take them. For my kids they were involved in school sporting activities. The trick is to talk to them about it and the consequences of not keeping their grades up.
     
  13. Winnie

    WinnieActive Member

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    I understand you, it's like an old movie (1980's) that I was watching a couple weeks ago, Baby Boom starring Diane Keaton. Sometimes we want to do everything all at once, but we just can't.

    If taking the kids to their sports is taking up too much of your time, then you are going to have to come up with something that makes you feel like you are not being cheated of your "free" time. You might end up being in a bad mood all of the time if you feel like you never have any time for yourself. And if you're constantly in a bad mood, your family will suffer.

    If the kids are in 2 sports, but the schedule pace is driving you crazy, then you can cut the sports down to just one. It's good that your kids are in sports, but you have needs that have to be met as well. You have to feel healthy in order to give your kids your best self.
     
  14. Feneth

    FenethActive Member

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    We allow a yearly budget for 'sport'. When we stayed in one place all year and my daughter was in elementary school, she often did one sport or activity per season. Softball in the spring, swimming in the summer, half-lease of a horse in the fall, and usually an indoor club or lesson like chess, cooking, or line dancing in the winter.

    We didn't allow more than one sport or organized activity at a time because we believed in showing/teaching work-life balance. She had schoolwork to complete, equivalent to an adult's job. An organized activity is a non-work time commitment, like my volunteering. She and we had chores. And she also had time to just hang out with friends or play video games or read. We wanted her to practice making choices about what was important to her. We didn't and still don't consider sports to be social time because they're structured and she should be focused on the activity, not talking and being social. Some of the other kids from her sports are her friends and they hang out other times but it's not the same. I have seen some kids with multiple sports and school and no real time to just hang out and be kids and I didn't want my daughter to be one of them.

    Even though I didn't and don't watch her practices, I still invest the time and fuel to drive her to them and pick her up. The length of her practice means that there's not much I can do in that time before I have to go back to get her and I try not to stray too far in case of emergency so even if I'm not there, the whole time period is still a commitment for me.

    Now, she uses her entire yearly sport budget on cheer. That's her choice and she loves it. She made varsity at tryouts this year (next fall will be her 9th grade year). We stay 'home' from July when cheer practices start until after her last game in late-fall. Then we (all three of us) travel the rest of the year. She uses cyber-charter school so her school work comes with her. Her grades and testing scores are fantastic and she's able to work at her own level, which in a few subjects is above grade level.
     
  15. AtlantaSports

    AtlantaSportsActive Member

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    Many people have mentioned that they make sure that their kids' schoolwork comes before their sports and other activities. I think that works great with something like video games, but if you have a kid that is inactive and never goes outside or shows any desire to be active whatsoever, then I think that exercise is almost mandatory for them.
     
  16. hayrake

    hayrakeActive Member

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    It seems like kid's sports is so much more of an issue today than when I was young. Sure kids played sports back then, but there just didn't seem to be that much emphasis on it. At least not until high school when there were a few (a very few) boys who might have been hoping for scholarships.

    There weren't as many sports to choose from back then, either.

    Like in many things today, kid's sports is another area where parents seem often to be overindulgent. Seemingly afraid that if they are not they might be harming their kid's psyche or getting in his or her way of determining what to do in the future.
     
  17. AtlantaSports

    AtlantaSportsActive Member

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    I think the main reason is because there are a lot of parents who wish they would have worked harder in their sport at an earlier age, because they think that they missed out on a scholarship because of it. I understand that. Plus, kids' sports are much more competitive than they used to be because there are more kids and there are scouts that are looking earlier and earlier. There are also a lot more scholarships and schools that care more about sports nowadays.
     
  18. o'wale

    o'waleNew Member

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    Many children simply don’t have fun playing sports anymore. Here’s a plan to reverse the “adultification” of youth athletics.

    Last month, at a local coffee shop, I ran into a father I know from my daughter’s school. While we exchanged small talk, he mentioned that he’d hired a local

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    -level soccer player to work with his daughter. She was now receiving one-on-one coaching, as well as extended training sessions. Under this tutelage, she’d learn how to eat right, compete at the highest level, and prepare for what would surely be a glorious athletic future.

    Did I mention our daughters just turned 7?

    Such is the world of youth sports today. And this is by no means an extreme example. We’re all familiar with parents sending children off to camps and gurus or driving them across state lines for tournaments. We bear witness to overzealous parents at youth basketball games, screaming at referees and children. We hear about middle-schoolers being courted by college programs, creating outsize expectations no 11-year-old could hope to meet. At night and on the weekends, we marinate in an American sports culture that glorifies winning and individual statistics above all, from fantasy games to the scientifically measurable

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    that occurs when “our” teams lose.

    And then we wonder why our children don’t seem to enjoy sports as much as they once did. How many times have you heard the refrain “Back in my day, kids just went outside and played sports for fun”? It may be a tired trope, but it’s also very much true.

    According to Michigan State University’s Institute for the Study of Youth Sports, a child’s No. 1 reason for playing sports is to “have fun.” Yet by the time they are 13 years old, 70 percent have dropped out of team sports.

    The primary reason? You guessed it. According to a comprehensive study conducted a few years ago by the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF), an organization founded by tennis legend Billie Jean King to advance the lives of girls and women through sport, the most common answer for both boys and girls is “because I was not having fun.”

    This is a serious problem. When a child stops playing organized sports, he or she loses more than the chance to play a game: A child’s

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    participation is associated with higher levels of family satisfaction and improved physical and emotional health, academic achievement, and quality of life, according to the WSF study.

    And this is to say nothing of the other benefits of organized sports, which provide a safe environment to learn about grit, humility, sportsmanship, leadership, and fairness while developing self-control, a lifelong love of movement, and an openness to being coachable.

    That’s a lot to miss out on.

    Which brings us to the crucial questions: What went wrong with youth sports? And how can we fix it?
     
  19. GemmaRowlands

    GemmaRowlandsActive Member

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    I would always want to encourage children to participate in sports as much as possible, because it is healthy and means that they will be able to keep fit as well as being a valued part of a team or group. You should always prioritise school and homework first, then make sure you get at least one afternoon or evening per week that is family time, and then let the kids do what they want for the rest of the time! Honestly, if you're lucky enough to have kids who are voluntarily wanting to do sports etc, I genuinely believe that you should be encouraging them to do that.
     
  20. regicide3342

    regicide3342New Member

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    Just remember to always ask their opinion: If they want to do something for hours then go for it, if they hate soccer dont make them play it. Dont allow them to kill theirselves with training though, make them have breaks.