Today, we enrolled our oldest child in the Upwards Basketball program. He’s been asking to play basketball for a while now, and he’s not currently involved in other activities, so the timing seemed appropriate. If you’re not familiar with Upwards, don’t despair — neither am I. From what I can gather, the program is focused on kids sports, with the primary intent of providing a positive experience for the kids. Several of the churches in our area have gotten together to provide the program to area kids. I’m certainly hoping this works out OK. I’ve had some less than savory experiences with parents in kids sports.
Parents And Sports For Kids
I have a stepson who played both baseball and basketball when he was in elementary school. I’ve participated as either a coach or an assistant on several of the teams he’s played on, and I’ve got to say I’m not sure the experience turned out to be positive for him. My hope for children and sports is that they gain an appreciation for hard work, sportsmanship, and a feeling of confidence. I know parents don’t want to hear this, but at the age of 8, we shouldn’t start planning for our kids to be professional athletes. Sadly enough, it seemed that with my stepson’s teams, the games become more about the parents than the kids. Add on top of that the behavior of some of the parents, and it made me want to not even be there. We’ve probably all heard stories about parents yelling, cursing, and sometimes even assaulting other parents and even children in some cases. I know this sort of behavior is not the norm, but when it happens, it taints the sport and the kids. I can personally attest to the fact that it does occasionally occur.
I think most of the research into childhood development will show that participation in some sort of sport provides benefits for young children. We can also say with some certainty that kids need more exercise. I just hope that we, as parents, can get away from living vicariously through our kids, and just let them enjoy the game.
