As the parent and stepparent of children who participated/s in many sports I hav

Question

As the parent and stepparent of children who participated/s in many sports I have had the pleasure (or not!) of observing parental reactions to a variety of events. Without writing a novel here, I would just like to say that sometimes I think the parents are the ones who need a workshop on "How to behave at my child's game"! What are your views on parent’s behaviors? Please share an experience or observation that you have had either of good or bad parent behavior at a youth sporting event. I have a feeling there will be some good stories here!

Explanation / Answer

Most of the parents get so excited and happy when they see their little ones participate in competitions during sports, arts etc. Some parents are encouraging and they comfort a crying child that lost a game or competition but few others are very critical and blame the child for not winning the competition. Sometimes, these parents shout and yell a lot and even a child that’s a potential winner loses the competition.

Once I had an opportunity to witness a fair in our area, where sports activities were conducted for children. During the running race, one of the parents kept yelling at the child until the race was over. Although the child came second among 15 children, this parent never stopped the shouting because he wanted the child win the first prize. This, I felt was very demotivating, demoralizing and disrespectful from the child’s point of view and I think a parent should support the child no matter what the outcome is.

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