I've been an avid reader and follower of elitefts.com from day one. I've seen many of the authors and athletes from elitefts™ become parents over the course of time. I've also read many posts regarding overzealous parents who are too involved when it comes to their children playing youth sports. This article is about the parent who is the exact opposite and couldn’t possibly be less involved in his own child’s activities.
My son participates in many different sports such as full travel ice hockey, karate, and travel baseball. This has exposed me and my son to many different types of parents and coaches. When it comes to practices, you can really see the parents' habits. I see many parents drop their kids off and head to the stands to text. They aren’t the least bit interested in what their child is doing. If you aren't watching what your child is doing, how can you possibly know whether or not the activity is fun for the child?
I believe that the activity must be fun before the child can practice with any enthusiasm. If the parent doesn't have any enthusiasm, how can the child? My son had a baseball practice this summer where three coaches were unable to make the practice due to work obligations. Did any other parents step up and help? Nope. They were all too busy texting and waiting for practice to end even after being implored to help out. If your child is going to practice, he needs coaching in order to improve. Merely dropping him off on the field doesn’t help, especially if your coaching staff happens to be short on help that day. Way too many parents are preoccupied with themselves at practices and don't watch their kids.
I see parents who feed their kids out of vending machines instead of cooking dinner or packing something of decent nutritional value. "Mite" hockey games are early (we had to roll our son out of bed at 4:30 a.m. for a road game last year), but I’ve seen parents feed their kids donuts before they play a game. That’s downright lazy. Get your rear end out of bed 30 minutes early and make the kid a decent breakfast rather than send him down the path to obesity. With a decent meal in his stomach, he might actually perform instead of running out of gas late in the game. I understand that we live in a "sickciety" where we run our kids from place to place and can’t always sit down at a dinner table, but at least plan ahead and pack something decent for your child. Give your kid a chance.
Laziness doesn’t end with parents whose kids play sports. The trend goes well beyond the sports and activities our children participate in. My son attends day camp in the summer. The camp policy for pick up is you park your vehicle in the parking lot and go inside to retrieve your child. There was one mom who parked her SUV at the curb and waited for her six-year-old son to run out and get himself in. Can you imagine letting your six year old run out into a parking lot by himself? I had words with her because this laziness irked me so much. How wanted and needed can this child feel when mom drops him off at a sports practice?
I have neighbors who let their young kids run free without any supervision at all. They frequently join different activities and always quit because it's too much of an inconvenience for the parents to take the kids to practice. Their kids have motorized cars and ride them around the block in the summer. The kids also have three chins, and the oldest kids is only seven years old. Buy your kids bikes and teach them to ride or stick with a sport the kid enjoys. You might have to—gasp!—try several before the child finds one, but don’t let him sit in front of a television playing video games all day. I equate these video games with crack cocaine for kids. They’re addicting and lead to decreased physical activity, which then leads to obesity. I’m not saying that having them isn't OK, but limit the use. It should be a treat, not something that’s done every day. Physical activity of some sort should be done every day.
I understand that not everyone can coach, but get involved on some level. Serve as team manager, help the coach with the gear, or step up and help when a coach can’t make it. Support the coaches and organizations that support your kids.
We set the example our kids follow. They see our work habits and ethics. They are influenced by our morals. Watching your kids blossom in school and sports is awe inspiring. It goes by us way too fast. If you’re too busy texting and 'Facebooking' to realize that and your life revolves completely around yourself, I feel sorry for your kids. You should never have had them.