Pathetic. I'll bet you that the parent in that case never played organized sports him/herself.
When I played competitive junior tennis, my parents never came to a single match to watch. That was fine with me. I used to see parents of kids I'd beat berating the kids for the loss after a match, the kids crying and the parent screaming at them for 'playing so badly'. In some cases, the parents would say, "If you don't want to take it seriously and work harder at it, I'll take your raquets away," to which the kid would reply "Take them away. I don't care!" Who's playing this for whom??
By the time I was 16 and 17 years old and saw this, I wanted to scream at those parents, "Go get your own life!"
Now I've seen the same thing at soccer games for 8 year-olds. Parents all screaming instructions at their kids, berating them and telling them what to do better when they walk off the field instead of congratulating them and asking them if they had fun. It seems in most cases, these are the parents who look as though they've never been athletic in their own lives. The ones who I know have played some HS or college sports bide their time quietly on the sideline, saying or cheering very little.
What does this parental behavior teach the kids? Winning is the most important thing? If you can't win, don't try? Fun and exercise are secondary to results? Thank God my kids are still young and you virtually never see this sort of thing in 3-5 year old T-ball. [img]smile.gif[/img]
|