Most modern mothers recognize that the world of youth sports has gotten out of control. Nine year-olds play hockey year round. Or soccer. Or swim team.
Eleven year olds suffer stress fractures, tendinitis, and repetitive stress injuries. And, the parents? The parents make themselves crazy shuttling children to practices all week and trekking to distant tournaments on weekends; they give up on a family dinner hour when faced with the demands of multiple youth sports schedules; and, we won't even begin with those rare, but notoriously ill-mannered parents known for their appalling parenting strategies,shouting expletives, and fighting.
What is the goal of youth sports? To instill a life-long love of exercise? To allow children to experience the camaraderie of a team? Clearly, those goals could be accomplished in less intensive programs. Is the goal to help them attain admission to an elite college, i.e., get them" recruited" to Harvard? There are
ample statistics to demonstrate the slim chances of post-high school athletic glory, though this might be a motivation for some.
Why do we sign on for these punishing schedules? Are we doing it because everyone else is doing it? We just can’t stop ourselves? A child wants to play basketball, even likes to play basketball. We sign him up. The team practices twice a week and his team loses every game to teams that practice 4 times a week, and it's no fun to lose every game. What is the solution? Practice more! Thus, the vicious cycle begins, the arms race of youth sports programs. Well, its time to de-escalate.
So, when her 10 year old, who has been playing ice hockey three to five times a week since October, says, “I'm kind of tired can I skip practice tonight?” this modern mother might surprise herself by saying yes. She agrees, despite the fact that she believes strongly in honoring one's commitments. She will not worry about raising someone to think its acceptable to renege, she will remember she is raising someone who can recognize when he has reached his limit. She will instead feel satisfied with taking one small step towards fighting the exponential intensification of youth sports. Her next step should be to seek out a team with a lighter practice schedule. She should find that about the same time she discovers a unicorn or the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
