You had your own era on this board. It was a bad era, but it was something.

Been my experience when you push kids they push back in the opposite direction.

My parents pushed me toward sports but nothing else. It was a great time, and I have my Al Bundy stories, but sports ends. I wish I'd developed more hobbies as a youth that would last as an adult. I try to play instruments and all that now, but I'll never be very good.

You should have become an Eagle Scout like me.

Jesus... what are they teaching in Eagle Scouts!?

Boy Scout Oath or Promise

On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.

Being morally straight means to live your life with honesty, to be clean in your speech and actions, and to be a person of strong character.

So much for the last part.

Boy Scout Oath or Promise

On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.

Being morally straight means to live your life with honesty, to be clean in your speech and actions, and to be a person of strong character.

So much for the last part.

Add Seacreast to the blow me list Someguy.

What do you do if your kid really sucks? Let him/her keep going? Encourage them anyway?

Let them keep doing while doing their best,

Encourage them to be a part of a team. Something larger than themselves.

What do you do if your kid really sucks? Let him/her keep going? Encourage them anyway?

Encourage them to do things they find fun. There is not a single sporting event in their lives that will matter up until the Varsity or equivalent in high school, and even that is questionable at best. You can be on a traveling team that wins the national championship and it doesn't matter.


The biggest mistake parents make is caring how good or bad their kid is at a sport at the pre-high school level. It really doesn't matter. You want the kid to have fun and enjoy it.

Our son said he didn't want to play baseball anymore. Fine with us. He'd rather play piano than baseball which I think is pretty cool.

I understand what you're saying, but to a 10 year old kid it definitely matters....

and the having fun thing is kind of synonymous with winning and being good, in a way...it's hard to have fun when you suck

Kids have short memories, and a lot of the caring about winning comes from wanting to please parents or coaches. It's fun to get a trophy, but those trophies end up collecting dust pretty quick.
It depends on the way the environment is setup. If you have a bunch of parents yelling "COME ON. WE NEED A HIT!" then there will be more of an emphasis on winning.

If your kid is coming home sad or upset and didn't seem to get a positive experience then there is no shame in letting them try something else. Your kid may end up sucking at that sport but who cares? A fun and enjoyable childhood is more important than dreams of getting playing time on your varsity baseball team.

A lot of kids like that just end up posting on message boards.

If you have a bunch of parents yelling "COME ON. WE NEED A HIT!" then there will be more of an emphasis on winning.

A lot of kids like that just end up posting on message boards.

To save the "You don't have kids, what do you know?" I probably have more experience working summer basketball camps for kids than you do, so "You never taught the game at the 5th grade level, what do you know?"

Encourage them to do things they find fun. There is not a single sporting event in their lives that will matter up until the Varsity or equivalent in high school, and even that is questionable at best. You can be on a traveling team that wins the national championship and it doesn't matter.

I quit baseball and soccer because I didn't like it all that much. I liked basketball but I was pretty horrible at it. Eventually, I got pretty good because I wanted to play and I enjoyed it. The biggest mistake parents make is caring how good or bad their kid is at a sport at the pre-high school level. It really doesn't matter. You want the kid to have fun and enjoy it.

To save the "You don't have kids, what do you know?" I probably have more experience working summer basketball camps for kids than you do, so "You never taught the game at the 5th grade level, what do you know?"