Should My Child Play?

Some recent tragedies in sports have prompted a bunch of folks to question the value of sports participation.  Everything from domestic abuse to catastrophic injuries--the bigger the stage the greater the uproar. 

Ray Rice.  Concussed quarterbacks at Michigan.  13 year olds with ACL injuries.

But at the local, personal level, the questions being asked are maybe just as profound.  Should my child play sports?  Is the risk of injury worth it?  Does it give our children a sense of entitlement that produces dysfunctional adults?

I've asked and answered those questions here many times.  My kids DID play.  And my son's football career was ended with a devastating injury during his fourth year of college football. 

I'll go ahead and play my hand by telling you that I truly believe that the adults that they have become (good, responsible, active) is a product in no small part because of that sports participation.  And if you ask them, they will also tell you that they would do it all again.

But for you, maybe it's different.  Maybe it doesn't seem quite worth it.  Everybody has to make a value judgment on that, deciding what is best for their family and their children.

How about this:  Take a step back and ask yourselves why you want your kids in sports in the first place.

Only you can answer that question for you and your family, but the bottom line is that active children become active adults.  With Tennessee being the 3rd most obese state in the nation, you don't have to look far to realize that our children need to be more active.

Do you have to play sports to do that?  Certainly not.  I've glorified my own childhood by sharing memories of playing football in the street, swimming in the creek, and playing pickup basketball in everybody's back yard.

The value of "play" cannot be overstated. 

But I also know that opportunities to play like we did when I was a kid are just not there today.  

When I share with my now grown kids, who have kids of their own, about getting on my bike in the morning and leaving for the day with the single instruction to be home for dinner, they find it pretty incredible and absolutely impossible in today's world. 

Sports provide our kids with those opportunities.   Yet, organized sports cannot nor should not fill the whole picture.  When my kids were growing up, we did crazy things like white water canoe on the Nantahala, rock climb at Look Rock, and hike all over the Smokies. 

We played at the park and went to the zoo and built things in the yard.   Those types of things are all still essential.

Do you want your kids to do things that you couldn't or didn't do?   Some call that living vicariously through your children.   Much preferable is that you want your kids to have opportunities that you didn't have and maybe sports are a big part of that. 

That's OK.  As a matter of fact, I believe that is the basic premise behind successful parenting:  That we want our kids to be better, bigger, smarter, happier, healthier...all those things and many more...than we were.  

That NEVER means that you're going to send them to every camp, make sure they get on the "right" team, or buy them everything that they might possibly need to fulfill YOUR dreams for them.

It ALWAYS means that you are going to provide them with opportunities to grow and develop, to find their own way, to mold them much as God might fluff clouds.