What is it about Sports that Brings Out the Worst in Parents?

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

30 Mar 2007 06:07 AM

Did you see the footage of the Ukrainian father and coach who started beating his daughter when she didn't make it in a qualifying swim meet in Australia? Those of us who did see the actions were appalled and it's very likely that the father didn't realize that the camera was indeed focused on him as he started slapping and hitting his daughter.

According to some viewers, he might have even realized that he went too far as he tried to hug her and she pushed him away. In one small glimmer of good fortune, the father has now been banned from swimming competitions and Australian authorities, pending possible charges of assault, have also detained him.

So, What Is It About Sports?

My question does remain - what is it about a sport that brings the worst out in parents? Dads beating up the softball umpires and little league coaches - parents getting into knock down drag outs in the middle peewee soccer and mothers of teenagers commissioning the assassination of cheerleader competitors?

It's enough to turn the most reasonable person off of anything remotely resembling organized sports for their kids and just for that reason. The last thing I'd want to deal with at a soccer game is another parent flipping out at my child or me or at anyone else. What kind of example does that set for our youth when a parent's competitive nature overwhelms any potential common sense they may have had where their son or daughter is concerned and they let their own needs and desires override the genuine meaning of team competitive sports - the need to challenge oneself to be better together than they are individually.

We encourage sports because that is a national past time in the United States. We want our kids to be physically active. We want them to enjoy sports. But more and more, it seems that sports are more about winning, competition and beating down the opposition or worse - as in the case of the Ukrainian father, beating down our own children when they don't perform as we demand that they do.

So do you know what it is that sports does to parents?

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Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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