HOW DID WE GET TO WHERE WE ARE TODAY IN SPORTS PARENTING?

I want to ask you a basic question about the state of sports parenting… we all know that sports parenting has become incredibly complicated these days….whether it’s deciding what sport or sports your child is going to play, whether they should try out for a travel or club team, how do you decide which travel team to try out for, whether they really do need to specialize in a sport, and on and on…..in short, when you -  as a parent -- decide to go down this pathway with your youngster, you have to know it’s going to be tricky and at times, a very challenging process.

So here’s my question….how in the world did we get here? And what are the underlying reasons why?

As you know, I often refer to sports parenting and how it was a generation or two ago, back when kids who liked sports went outside and played pick-up games….there were no parents involved….just kids playing touch football, or soccer, or basketball, or baseball.

True, some of this kid-driven activity still continues to this day….but certainly not to the extent that it used to be.  Back in the day, Every neighborhood had kids playing pick-up games of one sort or another. It wasn’t until HS that one’s involvement in sports became more organized and, quite honestly, it involved the coaching by an adult….usually a coach at the school.

I can vividly recall that my own Dad came to see me play in a game when I was in the 5th or 6th grade…it was just a local youth league baseball game….I recall that game because I don’t think my dad – or any other sports parent – came to watch and observe any more games until my friends and I were in high school.

Again, that wasn’t upsetting or unusual…it was just the way it was. Parents had their own lives, and their kids were out playing ball on their own.

But of course these days – it seems that any serious sports parent is already out working with their 4 or 5 year old, getting them introduced to the basics of each sport…by the time the kid is 5 or 6, the parents are already lobbying to make sure their kid is being recognized as a rising star.

And then everything escalates from there, in terms of local travel teams, select teams, club teams, and on and on. Tryouts become much more nerve-racking, and everybody gets more tense as to whether their kid makes the cut.

This is not fun.

And my question is… why has this happened? Why have we allowed youth sports to become so pressurized, so competitive, and so challenging?

1 - Is it just because of the awareness of how much money a top professional athlete can make? Is that what’s driving the American obsession with sports parenting?

2 - Or is because we, as caring parents, simply want the very best in life for our youngsters – including sports – and if that means having to drive them to numerous practices and games each week, well, that’s a small price to pay. And speaking of a price to pay, of course all these sporting activities cost real money.

3 – Or Is there a deeper motivation at work here? That parents feel such pride in their little one being seen as a rising star that the Mom and Dad  want to, in effect, show off their kid among one’s friends and peers in the neighborhood?  A modern-day kind of conspicuous consumption?  Is that a major driver

4 - Or is It all about college being the end goal? Many sports parents tell me that they realize that the chances of their kid going pro is a great but unreachable goal….but they do believe firmly that their young star has a real shot of perhaps earning a  full or partial college athletic scholarship….or at the very least, being a top athlete will very much help their chances of being admitted into a top college…

All I know is this….sports parenting involves a huge commitment from parents today…and if you have more than one athlete in your family, the element of time and money becomes even more overwhelming.

Why? Why have we allowed ourselves to go down this pathway? The kids didn’t make this happen. We did!

Take a listen to today’s WFAN Sports Edge podcast to find out more: The Sports Edge with Rick Wolff