Sports Pressure

We live in a sports-obsessed culture. In God’s good design, sports are a good thing as long as they don’t become an ultimate thing, or idol. One measure of how much we worship sport is the growing pressure many kids feel from their parents to not only participate, but to excel, and this is happening at younger and younger ages. It’s no wonder many of our kids burnout and then dropout from youth sports. Researchers have found that many adolescents feel that their parents interfere in their sports experience by doing things like videotaping and critiquing their performances, offering rewards for excellent play, and putting them in too many camps. Researchers also found that this pressure can be attributed to parents wanting to give their children experiences they themselves never had. Parents, let’s give our kids opportunities to play, to learn, to try hard, and to have fun. And let’s remember Paul’s word to the Ephesians about parents, that we are not to exasperate our children.