Teaching Kids About Competition...

There's an article floating around the internet entitled: Society Gone Soft. (You can read it here.) It talks about the importance of teaching your kids the value of competition and winning and losing. I have to say that I'm not one of those touchy feely parents who thinks everyone should get a ribbon or a medal for just for showing up. Medals are for winners. I think winning is important. I think losing is equally important. You can learn a lot from losing. I think we need to teach children about competition and its role in life - because it does hold an important role - and they need to learn it now rather than getting crushed by it as adults.

Both of my children play baseball...and one of them really loves the game and one of them is learning to love the game.  (And yes, you know which children I'm talking about.) I'm somewhat hard on my kids when it comes to ball. Just ask Grayson. Today he decided to sit his ass down in right field during the game...and I yelled at him to "GET UP!" at the top of my lungs. And trust me - he got up! When he got in the car, he was told if he EVER did that again, he would sit the rest of the game because I would pull him off the field. He understood. He committed to this team...and with his commitment comes the responsibility of giving his all. I'm not asking for perfection...I'm asking for his full attention and effort.

Today, even though we lost, I saw a bunch of kids playing ball who REALLY wanted to play ball. Who gave it their all.

And then...I saw a few kids who had no hustle. Who whined while out in the field that they were bored. Who blew off coaching pointers because they "know it." Who took off their gloves while on defense and weren't ready when the ball was coming their way. It pissed me off! My child...who wants to play ball, who takes coaching, who hustles had to sit on the bench so your child could play.

At this point in the game, parents need to ask their children if they - the children -  really want to play ball. It can't be because you, the parent, want your child to play ball. The child has to want it. They need to commit...they need to show up for practice. They need to be coached. They need to know that baseball is a competition. One of many competitions they'll face in life. They need to know that winning is the goal.

Baseball teaches many skills. The next skill I'm going to teach my child is how to call out his teammates - the ones that aren't putting in the effort. Because guess what? In life...as adults...they'll get called out (or at least I hope they do!). And yes, I'll teach him to do it tactfully, at least more tactfully than I would. It may save me from getting kicked out of the next game.