2/15 assignment

Every child naturally looks up to their parents. From the beginning of a young child’s life they spend most of their time with their parents. They are taught how to live by their parents. They are taught what they truly enjoy and also what they truly hate by their parents. But some parents are over bearing. They don’t allow their child to grow and explore the world around them freely and safely in order to discover all it has to offer. This concept of overbearing parents is something that unfortunately can be seen in excess in the sports world. Almost every person in their youth played sports at one time or another. Sports are a major part of growing up. Not only are they fun but they teach lessons about life that cannot be taught in the classroom. But when parents lose sight of the fundamental reasons of why people play sports and get caught up in the heightened drama of the professional sporting world of today the results can be dangerous. Unfortunately in today’s world there are a lot of parents who attempt to force their kids to play sports for a variety of wrong reasons.  Whether it be their own lack of athletic accomplishments as a child or their want for their child to be the next professional star, parents who force and put this type of pressure on their kids are creating a negative and unhealthy relationship that can permanently harm not only their relationship with their child but their child themselves too. Parents who attempt to make the game larger than life by putting monumental amounts of pressure on their young child to perform are forcing their kids on the inside to deal with a fear of failure rather than a desire to succeed. Why these may end in a similar outcome most of the time, the driving force behind what compels the child to compete their hardest is very different. Overbearing and aggressive sports parents can not only ruin the fun of the game for their child but it can also have long term physiological and social effects on  the child long after they have stopped playing.