Parents Don't you just love articles like this...

[HoldThePhone]

Don't let youth sports hijack your life!

Now, perhaps I'm a bit biased because I have a young child involved in a very time consuming sport, but still, why should it bother anyone else? I don't think that my kid is less well rounded than a kid who participates in a recreational style sport just a couple hours a week.

 

[Quadqueen]

A friend posted this article the other day on Facebook. There's a new "you're doing a disservice to your child by having them in competitive sports" article each week. To each his own.

 

[cbifoja]

I'll admit I didn't read it all. First got hung up on the introductory paragraph:

Over the past couple of weeks, my husband and I have been wrestling with the decision over whether or not to play soccer. By we, I mean our two daughters.

By we, I mean our daughter???? You didn't say "we" before the second sentence. So why are you defining who we is in this manner?

And then the person just rambled on and on and on without every saying anything of substance. Okay, you don't have the commitment for 3-day a week soccer. That's on you. My experience is different. My kid loves being at the gym so much and I can't see that it is causing her any harm.

So there. Neener neener.

 

[mommyof1]

The only thing about this article that surprises me is that Outside magazine even has a web column written by a woman about family issues. The target demographic is young, single men. I let my subscription lapse because there just wasn't any content relevant to me as a busy working mom who likes exploring national parks with her family on the weekend. So who cares what their columnist thinks about youth sports?

 

[magmom]

I'll admit I didn't read it all. First got hung up on the introductory paragraph:

By we, I mean our daughter???? You didn't say "we" before the second sentence. So why are you defining who we is in this manner?

Seriously, do they not employ an editor? English majors need jobs!

 

[happychaos]

I just don't think I can take the advice of someone who named their daughter Pippa

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Keep deleting my comments in the vein of "if I can't say something nice..." I'll just say that I am glad my daughters both have VERY time consuming passions and will have far less time to get in trouble than "regular" teens.

 

[flipflopsalto]

my dd is in the gym 2 days a week and 1 day a week doing another sport, when she is home she drives me crazy! The kid has way to much energy to be sitting around at home, I can't wait til her hours increase... lol that being said, I think parents sometimes get wrapped up in their own busy schedule and forget that their child isn't as busy as they may seem. (Last year I had an after school job, I honestly thought dd was getting stressed from hours in the gym, hours are still the same but I am not working, she was stressed from mom being busy.)

 

[blueredzone]

I wonder if there is a direct correlation between kids having to much free time; and the amount of trouble they seek.

Anyone up for more troubled youths?

 

[gymbeam]

i'm a gym mom so obviously i'm all for organized & competitive sports. that being said, i don't think the only alternative to them is sitting around at hime with too much free time.

 

[aerials]

I call BS on this article. I did gymnastics in the 70s and 80s and in the 80s I was practicing 6 days a week. So this is not new. Because of my training I have always known "how to" and enjoyed working out which has lead to a healthy lifestyle. I enjoyed and learned other sports because I was so strong after gymnastics was over. Gymnastics taught me discipline and how to manage stress and multiple tasks. (practice and homework ) This would never happen in a one day a week program.

Also they are talking about a 4 and 6 year old and applying their philosophy to all children, even older children. I bet they change their tune in a couple of years.

 

[MaryA]

I read it on Facebook too. You're damned if you do and damned if you don't. If my daughter came home and sat around in her room every day after school, I'd be stressing about that. Best I can tell, from reading these articles, is I need to find sports for my kid that are seasonal, that don't practice too many hours per day BUT that enures that they get the recommended hour of vigorous physical exercise every day... That are competitive and give my children a sense of accomplishment but where not everybody gets an award because they have to learn how to lose. The "perfect storm" of team sports. Good luck with that.

Whether we're worrying about co-sleeping or bottle feeding or team sports, we parents need to learn that decisions made about child-raising are personal to each family and that everyone is only trying to do what's best for our children/family and to stop being so judgemental when one family's path is differnt from theirs.

I got the feeling, from reading this article, that this parent was writing it in part to justify her own decision to NOT have her child pursue the more competitive soccer path. I suspect she was feeling some pressure from the parents of her daughter's former teammates who had moved on to do travel soccer. And it's not impossible that her daughter will some day question this decision. I started my DD off in a YMCA gymnastics program and she was in it for 5 years. I know that she now wishes she had started off at a private gym, or at least switched sooner. I guess I do too. But at the time, the lower-hours, lower-cost option sounded sanest. We make decisions based on our information at the time, and do the best we can. Maybe someday I'll have a granddaughter who will start at the best gym in town as soon as she learns how to walk.

 

[sevenatenine2]

Not the most popular opinion, but I get what she's saying, and agree to an extent.

Gymnastics has seen (in my opinion) a huge increase of hours in the JO programs. When I competed in the 1990s, we were a fairly competitive USA Gym training compulsories around 8-10 hours a week. Optionals trained between 17-20. The problem comes when one gym increases the hours, the others feel they need to do the same in order to keep up, then it becomes wide spread.

Other sports are feeling the push more acutely. When I was in school, when you tried out for sports in 7th grade, most kids had only played recreationally or in gym class. Now, in some schools, it's hard to make a team if you haven't competed Club volleyball, Select softball, etc. So in 7th grade, the kids making the team are the ones who have played privately for several years, meaning that most of those kids committed to a sport in 3rd grade (ish). It's hard for a 3rd grade to know what they're going to want to play in high school, so parents are doing their best to guess that for them and hope they're right.

Are y'all not feeling that where you're located? My 21 year old quit gymnastics in 6th grade. She likely would have made the cheerleading team, but it wasn't really her thing. She wanted to play tennis in 7th grade and went to try out and looked pretty good to me. Served over the net, and all. The kid behind her at tryouts came in after her and looked like Venus Williams. My daughter didn't make the tennis team. In high school, she made the dance team, but was one of only a handful of kids on the entire 50 plus kid team that wasn't from a very competitive dance studio. And honestly, she only made the dance team because she had spent so much time in gymnastics from a young age.

If you're just a regular kid and play seasonal sports for fun, you're likely going to be shut out from making any kid of junior high or certainly a high school team here, and that is really too bad. Maybe it's more of a regional thing, but I see where she's going with the article.

 

[gracyomalley]

I agree that those writing this article may change their tune as the kids age - and also that there are always those who disagree with whatever parenting choice you make!

It is truly sad, but quite realistic, that in today's world it is nearly impossible for a kid to "pick up a new sport" as a tween/teen....and be able to play it at school/competitively. Except maybe track....which is where all the "old gymnasts" go around here! ( few to dance or cheer - but those aren't very big locally)

When I was in school, I swam each summer, but my parents chose not to allow me to do year round swimming. They also chose to steer me away from pointe at ballet. I was able to play softball, volleyball, swim and do cheer in middle school. In high school I couldn't do anything good enough to make the team or squad - but I also moved into drama and away from sports for many years...back to dance and running as a college student and beyond.

I was well rounded as a middle schooler. I had time for homework, family stuff and to sit around and be a kid...in both good and bad ways! On the plus, I had tried many things and made friends in many areas. On the down side, I never "mastered" anything, never saw any activity past the point where it got hard, never figured out what I really liked or was good at....and I had way too much time to spend with boys!

Hard to compare the social climate of the 70-90s to now - everything is more intense for kids - from kindergarten with all day and reading, to a gazillion AP classes as freshman, to youth sports. I think the total package is damaging to them - but I do think that allowing a kid to really excel at something they love at a young age is teaching them lifelong lessons that are missed if you "choose" to "make them well rounded". And for a kid to really give their all to something even if they later walk away, teaches them to follow dreams to a natural conclusion - which I suspect is useful in life!

 

[sevenatenine2]

I started gymnastics when I was older, around 9. I'd seen the movie Nadia, and begged, begged, begged my mom to put my into classes. She thought gymnastics was dangerous, and jokingly told me that she'd enroll me when Bela Karolyi opened a gym where we lived. The joke was on her when two months later he opened his new ranch up for gymnastics classes and it was located about 15 minutes away from where we lived. I'll never forget the excitement when I answered the phone and a heavily accented voice asked to speak to my mother, returning her call about classes.

My teacher was a friend of Bela's from Romania named Zoltan, and Zoltan did not play. At all. Recreational classes were entirely foreign to him. I loved it. Every time he would yell at me and I had no idea what he was saying, I imagined I was a Romanian gymnast. We ended up moving a year or so later and I made team at my next gym and it was fantastic.

Gymnastics was always my sport, chosen by me. It was a passion and I loved it. When I had my daughter, I put her into the sport hoping she would love it to. She enjoys it, but I think she, like most kids, would enjoy whatever sport their parents put them into. What I'm kind of sad about is that she'll likely not have the opportunity to choose a sport and get involved that way, and I think so many kids are in whatever sports they are in bc their parents put them in it when they were young and it's what they became good at. By the time they're ten or so and could really pick something that looks fun to them, lots of times they're too old to be competitive, and that's a shame. Exceptions apply, of course, and a sport like track is a great one.

 

[tooootsie]

I think everyone has their own opinion on this... I find some people I know think I am insane to have my daughters (6 and 8) practice 9 hours a week and compete gymnastics, others know that it is teaching them great time management and discipline. Personally I have found that the people who are overly judgmental don't do a stinking thing for their kids as far as activities because it will cut into "their" own personal free time as a parent. That is selfish in my opinion. But again we all have opinions and we know what they say about opinions... LOL

 

[blueredzone]

A parent that brings up drive time to and from as part of there argument.... Is looking for excuses to back there reasoning.

 

[aerials]

Personally I have found that the people who are overly judgmental don't do a stinking thing for their kids as far as activities because it will cut into "their" own personal free time as a parent.

I have found this to be true as well.

 

[jessmomto2]

This article and the arguments that are similar bug me because as kids shouldn't be in charge of everything I think they should have some say within reason of course in how they want to spend their free time. My daughter loves gymnastics and does other sports as well she is very young and not doing a lot of hours at the gym but I let her do all of her activities because she thrives on structure and getting her abundant energy out. My son on the other hand is happy to do one sport and spend most of his other time playing in his room. How fair would it be to me to tell my daughter who loves the structure of sports that no she can't because I think she needs lots of free play time when she is bored out her mind and won't play for more than 30min. in an unstructured way. On the flip side if I made my son do all of the sports my daughter does he would be would be a stressed out mess. I feel like these decisions should be guided by the child and how they work with rest of the family dynamic but both not just what the parents want should be considered.

 

[motigymnasticsmom]

I used to be one of those parents who were totally against sports, especially for children. I have changed my mind, my older DD is lazy, doesn't know time management,etc. Younger DD, gymnast, well lets say she wants to stay in the sport for a very long time So, sports of course is not for EVERY child, but they should be introduced to any sport when they are young.