Encouraging the Sport of Life!

Hey everyone, I’m on vacation and just remembered that I needed to get an article in by early tomorrow morning! Life is always throwing us challenges, even while on vacation! So what’s on my mind? A recent conversation with a local girlfriend about our kids and sports!

Hooking up with friends and comparing “parenting” stories is always a good thing! What fun to compare their athletic successes and their individual interests, those wonderful children of ours! How much do we (as parents) influence the sports and habits our kids choose to do even at these young ages? My girlfriend and I both agreed “no football,” even though both of our families are huge college football fans. What’s that all about? Love to watch it, love to talk about it, and love to live it for months every year; but “no”, you can’t participate? Actually, we never said “no” it’s just never been encouraged! O.k. they can participate in “flag” football! I found myself thinking, “Wow, do I really influence the activities and the sports that my kids play?” I’ve always thought of myself as so “open” to anything with my kids, if the interest was there.

I’m also remembering a conversation with my husband about our daughter, who has turned out to be one heck of a runner. She finished the Bolder Boulder in a fantastic time that surprised everyone involved with her training. This was confirmed only a couple of days ago, when she ran around the lake in exactly 30 minutes, that’s 4.5 miles in 30 minutes. Yup, she’s a runner! Her running success has both of her parents squirming saying no, no, no. We don’t want her to ruin her joints by running at this young age.

Then there’s baseball! For some reason neither myself nor my husband are baseball fans! We tried T-ball with our first born and fortunately (or unfortunately) found no desires amongst him or our other two children to do more than that first year. It’s been no sweat off of our backs, because we are not typical baseball fans. I recently discussed this with a friend, she and her family spend four or five nights out of the week at the baseball fields, either practicing or playing some form of the game. I don’t know why I’m not as big a fan as she is and it seems none of our kids are either? Have I influenced my kids to not be baseball participants and/or fans?

I’m sure I have! As every adult, whether you’re a parent or not, has the capability of doing. We are examples that the kids of the world watch, follow and are influenced from. Kids watch, listen and know everything that “parental figures” in their lives do. That’s where they develop desires, wants and “know-hows!”

They develop the knowledge to exercise by watching and experiencing their parents exercise. They learn to enjoy and love healthy eating by being introduced and experiencing healthy eating presented by their parents. They learn to desire success by experiencing successes amongst rec sports events and activities that they are good at. They also learn this by experiencing the success that their parents might achieve on an athletic or occupational level. They learn to enjoy sports on all levels when parents share that interest and love with them.

Whenever I talk about kids and changing the health and fitness of future generations, I always find myself coming back to the simple fact that it must start with us! It’s not a big deal that my family doesn’t love baseball so much. What matters is that my family experiences activities and sports in a way that encourages activities and healthy living in their lives always! Activities, sports, healthy living and being a good supportive parent that encourages these things is what works. Let them play football, with all the right gear! Let them run and win races, with proper shoes and coaching! And yes, let’s go play baseball; we can all learn to love the sport! Mostly, lets all learn to be the example and play the sport of life! That’s the athletic event that counts the most!

 

Deborah Holmes

June 16, 2009