This summer I decided to sign all my boys up for football. Now my older two boys started playing football at the ages of 5 and 6, so I figured since my 2 little ones were 5 and 7 it would be o.k. So not the case. Practices started in early July and it was great. The kids were all excited about meeting new and old friends. They or should I say we were there Mon.-Fri. from 6pm-8pm. fast forward to when the season actually started and it was a mess. My big boys at 11 and 12 have done this before so they were fine. On the other hand, the two little ones were a mess. they didn't want to play because they didn't want to get hit, or they were tired, whatever. It was just excuse after excuse. in the beginning, I would make them go no matter what. I mean, I spent money to sign them up and on the extras that they needed such as cups,under armor, cleats and the oh so special socks they just
HAD to have. however, as it slowly got worse with the complaining , I stop making them go. My big thing is , I believe that the younger they start the better chance they have of going pro. So my question today is...
How young is to young for sports.
HeHe...Don't you wish kids came with instruction manuals? And maybe a few different models with predetermined characteristics that you could count on? I think parenting is the most difficult thing many of us will ever do in our lives, partly because every child is unique and what works for one may not work for another. Even what works at one time may not work at another time for the same child. Certainly practice makes perfect and the earlier a child starts practicing the better the chance of him excelling if (and its a big IF) he wants to excel. Without the personal desire to achieve, the money and time and energy are wasted. Some kids gain the desire over time after they've been forced to practice diligently over the years, while others develop a resentment about being forced to practice and rebel, not only against practicing but also against those in authority (mom included). I pray a lot before making decisions!
ReplyDeleteI read your post and was laughing. I have wondered the same thing! My oldest daughter has had cheer in her blood from the first time she tumbled in a somersault at a baby gym class. From there on out it was all about how fast can I do I cartwheel? How many can I do in a row? She has all the neighborhood kids in cheer positions, practicing with her. I have signed them up for soccer also but that came out of my need to see them more active. The last thing I want is for them to be overweight like me! I never was involved in any kind of sports and have the worst eating habits of anybody! So I struggle every day with teaching them good exercise habits.
ReplyDeleteBut anyway, I got away from your question! How young is too young for sports? I would say it depends on the child. If they have an interest explain all that goes into playing the sport that they like. The practice times, how often, how long, the running, stretching, getting along with team mates. I try to explain all that I can before I invest the money. My girls talked about basketball all last year, their friends were doing it, they wanted to do it, yak, yak, yak. I took them to a practice, let them watch the other kids, YES, they had to play with boys!, YES, they had to run back and forth, back and forth, I answered all their questions and told them that if I put out the money they would go and they would participate! Needless to say, the basketball I agreed to buy for them to "practice" now sits in the shed and after a few times of "playing" in the back they were like No, we don't want to do that. Now at ages 7 and 9 this year we did soccer, went through the questions, talked to some of their friends, and they LOVE it! They can't wait for next year. So it all depends. They are kids and will change their minds but they have to also learn commitment. You can't just quit because it gets too hard, you're tired, you changed your mind. Those are my thoughts!
How young is too young for sports? I'd say, for some kids, the younger the better, and for others, never! I know my best friend has been doing crew since she was a child becasue her parents participated in it and she was always raring to go to practice and get into it becasue she had an innate love of it right from the start.
ReplyDeleteNow, take my boyfriend. He is not a sports kind of guy at all! yet, his freshman year of high school he was forced to go to football by his father and he agreed, allowing his dad the benefit of the doubt even though by this point he had a deep love of tennis from muddle school and wanted to join the tennis team. Well, he ended up hating it and because of the stress he ended up going through with not wanting to go to practice (he was the smallest guy on the team- you can imagine how that went!!) it started heavily affecting his grades. His father, however, wouldn't let him quit the team because he had spent so much money on the equipment and paying the school the fees for practices. Him and his father still have issues over that becasue of the huge fight they got in when he flat out quit at the end of freshman year and joined the tennis team. He now has a tennis scholarship to his college.
Last example: myself! I have never ever ever been a sports girl and I have never done well in sports. It got to the point where I was doing so poorly in gym in middle school my principle excused me from actually participating in the activities and let me write a paper on excersize and health each week to replace the missed time. The closest thing I got to being good at sports was being a goalie for hockey at gym (I attract flying things so I barely had to move- they always hit me! I just always ended up in the nurses office afterwards...) or when I tried crew my sophmore year of high school. I was fantastic at it but my body couldn't handle the extreme stress I was put under with morning practice before school, a heavy college-prep workload with honors and AP courses, afternoon and weekend practices. (I ended up in the hospital with that one...)
My point, which you can see after these examples, is that all kids are different, and some enjoy sports to an extreme level, while other moderately and some don't enjoy them much at all. You shouldn't push your kids into a sport just because your other kids do it or because they have a greater chance of going pro. Sports should be about excersize, having fun and meeting new friends who have similar interests. The thoughts of going pro shouldn't happen till a long time later. Because, lets face it, children of the age your talking about don't understand at all and don't care so much about going Pro because they are mentally incapable of looking that far into their future. Let them figure it out on their own and don't force them. They'll find their own way and if their interested in something they will come and talk to you about it and then you can help them with whatever sport they do choose.