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Thursday, March 21, 2013

Parenting and Sports

I haven't written in a while.  I've been trying to parent around and through all of the sports.  What I mean is that I've got all my kids in many different things after school.  Parenting and sports can be a great thing, but it can also make things nuts.

And, yes, I did mean to say that "I've got my kids in many different things after school." Truth be known, it started out with me pushing them to try different things.  Many parents do this.  You put them in something when they're young and they try it out to see if they like it.  Eventually, they might just land on something that they like enough to want to continue with it.  Along the way, if they're lucky, they might learn some determination, they might learn that disappointments in placement or performance are great motivators, that it feels better to win than to lose, but they also might learn to lose with some grace if that's important to you as the parent. Mine have learned that giving up play time is worth the results that they're getting.

With packed (and I mean packed) schedules, it can be a little stressful.

My friend was pretty blunt with me the other day and asked me what the heck I was doing having my kids so busy after school.  She has two kids that have one-day-a-week piano lessons, but other than that, they do homework and play.  (They're in the 5th grade.)  I think that that's fine.  But as kids get start to get a little older, my feeling is that it's good to limit idle time to the weekends.  My HOPE is that, while a little crazy sometimes, my kids are learning the skills of sports (which they love), and are also learning time management, delayed gratification, prioritizing, and many other lessons that create life-long impact.

How do you feel about parenting and sports?  Feel free to weigh in.  Different strokes, right?






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