Danny Westneat’s column in the Sunday Times is a must-read. He chronicles the journey he takes as a sports parent:
- being screamed at by a mother when volunteering as an umpire for a softball game of 10-year olds
- watching a basketball game of 7-year-olds being stopped because of parents treatment of a referee
- him yelling at his 9-year daughter to hurry up between ballet and softball practice (with one ballet slipper and one softball cleat on)
- questioning his daughter for sitting on the bench
Does this sound familiar?
Forget the kids. It's the parents who are losing it.
In a 60-day period from mid-April to mid-June, my kids went to 104 out-of-school organized activities. Deliriously I toted them up the other day. Baseball, soccer, basketball and softball games. Practices for all of the above. Piano and ballet lessons. Recitals. Choir rehearsals and concerts.
:
The doctors and researchers and social workers have focused all along on the wrong party. We kids are all right. It's you parents who need a timeout.