If your little Johnny plays sports you may have seen that psycho Dad or for that matter Mom, on the sideline scream his head off at absolutely any and everything. You know what I’m talking about… Veins popping out of his head, out of his chair pacing the sidelines, screaming like a lunatic, All the other parents from the other team quietly looking over see who that nut is. Then he yells at your kid… Now you’re fired up ready to get into the mix. It’s a bad scene. I often wonder what that nut and his kid talk about in the car ride home…
I often wonder if that Dad ever played competitive sports. Is that what he got out of the whole experience as a kid? Is the rest of the family embarrassed by his actions? Perhaps he is so obsessed with seeing little Johnny succeed that he’s just oblivious to the harm he’s causing. I just don’t get it.
I guess I was lucky. When I was growing I only played one sport competitively, soccer. My parents never pushed me to play any particular sport, soccer chose me. I loved it like nothing else and did very well, even winning an athletic scholarship to a prominent university. My Dad took me EVERYWHERE. Rain, sleet, snow, thousands of miles, it didn’t matter he was always there. And during all of those years I can’t remember one time where I heard him raise his voice other than to get my butt in gear. Now sure he would have some carefully selected words for the ref when his boy got slammed to the ground, but never was he one of those psycho parents.
I’m very thankful for that as I look back on my career and how my father nurtured my growth in the sport I love. I decided early on when my son started playing sports that the sport would choose him. That I would let whatever happens happen. Now that’s not to say I too don’t have some selective word for the ref just as my father did, but I always try to stay composed. I figure at the end of the day its not me playing the game. I’m not trying to relive my childhood through my son, I just want HIM to live it. I figure it’s up to me to support and guide him in a way that in the end make him a better person. If he is wildly successful, like I believe he can be, it will be by his own doing, not forced or coerced like a psycho parent just might.
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