In Reply to: wada, Im curious about your sports and lucky comment. Youth posted by azbruin on September 22, 2025 at 09:40:13
And I think it's very easy especially for boys to get caught in "needing to prove yourself" cycle in a sports context, and I worry how often kids receive good grounding from their parents, who quite frequently seem to be living vicariously through their children, and even if they do, how long it sticks before the next time they see the coach.
We have a neighbor who's a youth coach in professional sports. Both their kids are fully committed to playing multiple sports, though they seem to be more tightly paired to their dad's sport. They are constantly practicing. And I wonder if this was really the dream they had or if it has more to do with their parents.
These other activities can also be competitive (especially dance and theater moms can be f*cking vicious) but I feel like engaging in something like band fosters a much more cooperative environment for kids.
(I was never quite that interested in sports myself growing up, so that's where I'm coming from -- a friend of mine who has the same temperament pointed out once that we were the kind of kids who would enjoy sitting at home, reading an encyclopedia over going out and playing pickup soccer with neighborhod kids -- I didn't amount to much, but he's a cardiovascular surgeon.)