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Confessions of a Sports Parent: The Scoreboard
As the holidays have come and gone, and most of us are back into our routines, it can only mean one thing…back to driving our kids all over creation to their respective sporting events. As a result, I thought it would be fun to resume writing about the random thoughts I sometimes have while sitting on a sideline as a parent. This week, I pondered a topic that always provokes heated debate among parents and organizations: the scoreboard. How important is it? What does it mean? Do you think it’s even needed? Is it the only thing needed? Like most things in our culture today, the two extremes rule the…
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Confessions of a Sports Parent: The Parent Zone
If you are anything like me, I sometimes lose sight of my boy’s childhood, which is flying by. We go from one season to the next, making it difficult to enjoy the time in front of us entirely. It is hard to stay in the moment and present, knowing the next game, season, or sport is approaching. That said, whenever I catch myself adrift from the moment, I approach each game or match with the end in sight. It sounds contradicting, but it has helped me stay in the present. One of the interior freedoms that occurs after mid-life is the ability to see things in a non-dualistic fashion. For…
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Confessions of a Sports Parent: Sports Wounds
(This is the second part of the series; it might be helpful to read the first here) We have all heard flight attendants tell adults and caregivers, especially parents, to apply their oxygen masks before helping others. The idea, of course, is that if you run out of oxygen yourself, you can’t help anyone else with theirs, especially children. That is a good image for me when I try to stay balanced as a sports parent. When I find myself out of balance, it usually happens when my old sports wounds, fears, or anxieties rear their ugly heads. I refer to these things as my shadows. Consequently, when I watch…
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Confessions of a Sports Parent: Sports Balance
We know there is no rule book for parents. We learn on the fly, and many cultural influences affect our decisions and values, not to mention our personal history, both positive and negative. Furthermore, for those of us who have children playing sports, the same premise exists…there isn’t a rule book, yet the same influences exist. Gone are the days of signing up at your local league and you play a season for just that team alone. The rise of travel and specialization has changed the landscape of youth sports. As a result, most of us are trying to navigate an ever-changing world of youth sports to ensure our children…
